Investment News

Financial Markets Authority (FMA) executive director evaluation and oversight, Liam Mason, has hit back at claims of increasingly heavy-handed regulatory information-gathering tactics. As reported last week, legal firm DLA Piper warned financial services firms to better-prepare for a more hard-line approach from the FMA after clients reported a sharp rise in the use of ‘Section 25’… [Read More…]

Wellington-based manager, Booster, is set to launch a new cash portfolio investment entity (PIE) fund to compete with on-call bank accounts as the higher-rate environment prompts a surge of interest in the asset class. According to scheme documents published last week, the Booster Savvy Fund “aims to provide customers with a competitive everyday on-call transactional… [Read More…]

Pie Funds has reshuffled its legal and risk teams following the departure of head of compliance, Stephanie Cross, with another independent board appointment also looming for the dual-city boutique. Cross, who doubled as associate general counsel, joined Pie in July 2021 from Covenant Trustee where she served in various senior roles for more than eight… [Read More…]

As an epitaph for ESG it doesn’t get much pithier than the last words doled out by US valuation expert, Aswath Damodaran, to a NZ CFA Society conference late in May. “Born in sanctimony, nurtured with hypocrisy and sold with sophistry,” Damodaran told the CFA crowd via video. “If you ever bury ESG, I hope… [Read More…]

Former AMP NZ chief, Blair Vernon, has climbed up another rung on the corporate ladder as the ASX-listed firm prepares for further ‘simplification’. Vernon will take on the chief financial officer (CFO) gig as of July in a job to be merged with his current group executive transformation title. He replaces outgoing CFO Peter Fredricson… [Read More…]

Medical Assurance Society (MAS) chief, Jason McCracken, has apologised to members ahead of a High Court showdown with regulators over historic insurance product errors. In a communiqué issued last week, McCracken told members that MAS uncovered the blunders, now subject to a legal action from the Financial Markets Authority (FMA), after a “fulsome review of… [Read More…]

In a rare private equity offer for NZ retail investors, the Australian Federation Asset Management, has added its flagship alternatives fund to the Apex (formerly MMC) platform. Federation chief, Cameron Brownjohn, said in a release that the manager’s Alternative Investments II Fund (F2) hook-up with Apex followed “strong interest and demand from independent financial advisers… [Read More…]

NZ has entered the catastrophe bond issuer market for the first time following a $225 million placement by Toka Tū Ake EQC in a move flagged last October. Previously known as the NZ Earthquake Commission, the EQC will use the $225 million ‘cat bond’ proceeds to diversify its reinsurance funding lines that have increased in… [Read More…]

The collapse of a built-in bull market has put more pressure on asset managers according to a new report, which will need to make “transformational changes” to enjoy the profitability and growth of years past. Market performance has been the main driver of revenue growth for asset managers and the end of a 20-year bull… [Read More…]

A leading NZ financial services law firm has warned the industry is ill-prepared for an increasingly heavy-handed regulatory enforcement tactic. In a recent workshop, DLA Piper partner, Emma Moran, said the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) had stepped up use of sweeping information-gathering powers under Section 25 of its governing legislation. Moran said anecdotal evidence from… [Read More…]