BNP Paribas Securities Services NZ head, Doug Cameron, will leave the business in October with long-time deputy, Iain Martin, to step into the role.
A BNP Paribas veteran of some 20 years, Cameron has led the NZ arm of the French bank-owned global custodian for the last eight years.
Martin has been there most of the time, too, joining the Wellington-based business in 2003, serving in a number of senior roles over the term – most recently as head relationship management and sales.
He will report to David Banks, acting head of the BNP Paribas Australia and NZ custodial business. Banks took on the role in an interim capacity following the surprise resignation of David Braga last December.
The NZ group has seen significant growth over the last few years, winning a number of high-profile custody and fund administration gigs, including Kiwi Wealth and ASB, where it is slated to take over many of the back-office duties this August.
Banks said in a release: “New Zealand is a growing market for BNP Paribas Securities Services and we are investing in the expansion of our services to capture these significant opportunities for growth, particularly in the KiwiSaver market and our work with the New Zealand Exchange.”
Martin officially takes over on October 1 with Cameron to stay on until the end of the month to ease the transition.
Long-standing Annuitas head, Simon Tyler, will step down in September, ending a 10-year career with the government funds management company.
Tyler joined Annuitas as chief executive in 2012 after serving more than two decades across senior finance roles at the Reserve Bank of NZ and ANZ. He also spent two years as a money market dealer for seminal NZ funds management firm, Southpac, starting in 1985.
Annuitas manages more than $6 billion on behalf of the Government Superannuation Fund (GSF) and the National Provident Fund (NPF).
The now $4 billion plus GSF was established in 2001 to help defray the costs of some now-closed government employee defined benefit pension funds. Government also guarantees the pensions of members of eight closed superannuation schemes sheltering under the NPF umbrella – the collective funds amount to about $2 billion.
Annuitas director, Stephen Ward, also resigned as at the end of June, with the board now comprising chair Margaret Blackburn along with Alison O’Connell and Ed Schuck.
Last week the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) filled one of several current senior vacancies after naming Margot Gatland as head of enforcement.
Gatland, who joined the FMA in a legal position in 2017, has been acting head of enforcement since last November as the regulator shuffled roles ahead of new chief, Samantha Barrass, arriving this January.
She stepped in for then head of enforcement, Karen Chang, who in turn moved up to general counsel (acting) as incumbent, Liam Mason, took the FMA helm prior to the arrival of Barrass.
Chang subsequently left to head the Serious Fraud Office. And the regulator has seen a spate of senior resignations this year including head of capital markets, Sarah Vrede, and external communications director, Louise Nicholson.
Including Nicholson (due to leave in August) the regulator has a couple of senior spots to cover with two executives in lead acting roles: investment director, Paul Gregory, is interim head of capital markets while director market engagement, John Botica, has doubled as fill-in head of regulation since last May, replacing Mason who was promoted to general counsel at the time.
Mason said the FMA appointed Gatland after “an extensive local and international search”.
“This is a crucial role, responsible for leading all the FMA’s work to enforce the law and prosecute misconduct,” he said in a release.
Elsewhere, licensed investment scheme, Midlands Funds Management, is recruiting for a new chief executive officer to replace Anton Douglas.
Douglas led the Hastings-based mortgage fund provider since October 2020, ending the stint in July this year, according to his LinkedIn page.
Prior to Midlands, he held senior investment positions with Credit Suisse in the US and NZ.
Midlands last reported about $110 million under management but is “well poised to achieve a target of funds under management of $250 million by 2026”, the CEO job ad says.
The group is one of the last remaining mortgage fund managers of the many that emerged out of legal firm lending operations across regions in NZ.
Meanwhile across the ditch last week, BlackRock has handed its Australasia deputy head, Jason Collins, a new title focusing on the mega-manager’s exchange-traded fund (ETF) and index investing business in the region.
In the newly created role of Australia and NZ head of iShares and index investments, Collins will “broaden out his current role as deputy head of BlackRock Australasia where he works across strategic initiatives and has high-level responsibility for enterprise relationships in the region”, according to a release.
Peter Loehnert, BlackRock Asia Pacific head of iShares and index investments said the manager was focused on ‘evolving’ its ETF business in the region.
“This includes using iShares ETFs for tactical asset allocation to core portfolio building blocks and whole portfolio solutions,” Loehnert said in the statement.
“Jason will accelerate our efforts in Australasia to democratise investing to help a broader base of investors achieve their long-term financial goals.”
BlackRock, the world’s largest fund manager with about US$10 trillion of assets, scored a couple of big clients in NZ recently, winning contracts with AMP (covering almost $10 billion of KiwiSaver and superannuation money) and the $20 billion plus ASB investment arm.