Investment News

New Zealand’s only Māori-controlled KiwiSaver scheme has officially handed in its keys after failing to make scale prior to the Financial Markets Conduct Act (FMC) December deadline. As reported by Investment News NZ (IN NZ) this April, closure was on the cards for the tiny IwiInvestor scheme – a subsidiary of the Taupo Moana Group… [Read More…]

The UK pension transfer market represents a plum opportunity for a “top tier” NZ financial services brand, according to Therese Singleton, AMP Services general manager. Singleton said AMP was about to release a “sharply-priced” qualifying registered overseas pension scheme (QROPS) product to tap into a potential $500 million a year market. She said AMP scoped… [Read More…]

ASX-listed financial services firm, IOOF, has been rapped on the knuckles for numerous “corporate governance and licensee breaches” following the completion of a regulatory investigation last week. While the inquiry knocked back the more serious insider trading allegations, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) found IOOF had made several operational errors. “This review identified… [Read More…]

Russell Investments has adopted an after-Brexit stay-in-bed policy, according to the group’s latest quarterly market outlook. The Russell report says share prices would have to experience “substantial moves” up or down before the global multi-manager executed its current strategy “to buy equity market dips and sell rallies”. “This happened in mid-February when global equities had… [Read More…]

As liquidity in the Australian share market continues to drop and algorithmic trading has splintered institutional activity into tiny parcels, the challenge for big super funds to get in and out of domestic stocks is getting worse. Institutional flows into Australia have plummeted. Against this backdrop, a group of former traders has launched a new… [Read More…]

BNP Paribas Securities Services (BNP) has rolled out a responsible investment tool, tapping into a burgeoning demand for the service from global institutional investors. The new ESG (environmental, social and governance) Risk Analytics system analyses up to 750 data points for every company in its database, BNP said in a release last week. Based on… [Read More…]

The Association of Superannuation Funds Australia (ASFA) has hired ex-pat New Zealander, Jim Minto, as interim CEO. Minto, head of the Dai-Ichi Life-owned insurance firm TAL (formerly Tower Australia) March last year, replaces ASFA chief, Pauline Vamos, who announced her resignation in February after serving over eight years in the role. Since November 2013 Minto… [Read More…]

Australia’s buy-side investment community, as represented by Bloomberg clients and prospects, is looking beyond domestic and traditional asset allocations for growth, according to the latest series of the information company’s forums for investors. The global series of ‘buy-side’ forums, which began as the 8th annual ‘London Buy-Side Forum’, in May 2016, and continued to Hong… [Read More…]

AMP is moving to a broader fund platform approach in its two key retirement savings products. Therese Singleton, general manager AMP Services, said the Australasian financial services conglomerate would add a further 16 fund choices to the existing 11 on the KiwiSaver and nine more to the 18 current NZ Retirement Trust (NZRT) product list…. [Read More…]

New Zealand’s second-largest stand-alone employer pension scheme has entered the Financial Markets Conduct Act (FMC) regime with a head full of steam and under a new banner. Malcolm Johnson, chair of the recently-rechristened UniSaver, said the almost $800 million scheme is poised for growth – both organic and potentially via mergers with smaller funds –… [Read More…]