Investment News

Global regulators are moving closer to reining-in crypto-asset markets following the release of final recommendations by the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) last week. Following a more than 12-month consulting period, IOSCO handed down 18 proposed rules to govern crypto-asset regulations grouped under six broad categories. Jean-Paul Servais, IOSCO chair, said the new digital… [Read More…]

After torching A$250 million on a botched blockchain replacement for its CHESS clearing and settlement system, the ASX will spend up to half that again on the first phase of another upgrade attempt. Under a deal confirmed last week, the ASX hired Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to install its off-the-shelf BaNCS for Market Infrastructure product… [Read More…]

Managers from Pzena and Invesco scored highly against the Northern Trust-backed Essentia Analytics’ Behavioural Alpha Benchmark, a system designed to differentiate between luck and true investment nous. Fund managers that made good investment decisions in the past are likely to continue making them in the future, according to research from Essentia Analytics, providing a new… [Read More…]

Factor-based investing has won many fans in the institutional and adviser worlds in recent years with a compelling mix of high science and low fees. But a new Mercer study warns that the data-led investment style, also variously known as ‘smart beta’ or ‘systematic’, should be taken with care. “In our view systematic equity strategies… [Read More…]

Auckland-based fund manager, Pathfinder, beat out 72 contenders to claim the top prize at the Sustainable Business Network (SBN) awards last week. In addition to the “supreme” Transforming Aotearoa New Zealand Award, Pathfinder also won in the Communicating for Impact category while co-founder, John Berry, was named Sustainability Superstar – a first triple-crown outcome in… [Read More…]

“These are not rules,” the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) new draft guide on ‘outcomes-focused regulation’ says. “They do not change firms’ obligations. They provide a focus for compliance and business efforts, supported by our existing legislative framework. Delivering these outcomes is the most effective way for good conduct to be demonstrated.” Nevertheless, the NZ financial… [Read More…]

The Kiwi Wealth brand is set to retire early next year along with outgoing Fisher Funds chief, Bruce McLachlan, ahead of a long tail of product rationalisation. McLachlan will hand over the reins of Fisher Funds to Simon Power next February after almost wrapping up the final main details of the Kiwi Wealth merger, the… [Read More…]

Booster has gone live with a suite of transaction services including a daily-use debit card framed around a cash fund. As reported in June, the Booster Savvy Fund launched earlier this year as a portfolio investment entity (PIE) offering a fixed 5 per cent rate and a goal of providing investors with seamless transactional access… [Read More…]

The official daily temperature is a molly-coddled version of reality. Gauged by meteorological instruments hidden from the elements behind a ‘Stevenson Screen’, the numbers confidently quoted by TV weather-explainers everywhere often jar with lived experience. Met services have recently taken to hedging the scientifically pure Stevenson-screened temperature with a ‘feels like’ version in deference to… [Read More…]

Environmental, social and governance (ESG) funds should forget fiduciary duty, dump ratings and adopt extreme exclusions in a radical revamp of the investment overlay proposed in a US academic paper. In a scathing take on the current ESG market, New York University (NYU) Stern Center for Business and Human Rights senior program manager, Michael Goldhaber,… [Read More…]