The number of licensed New Zealand fund managers hit double digits last week with Implemented Investment Solutions (IIS) joining the official list.
IIS, which markets a range of Russell Investments-managed funds, is the 10th firm to be licensed by the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) since December last year.
Anthony Edmonds, IIS managing director, said in a week where US presidential hopeful, Donald Trump, had bizarrely downgraded former supermodel, Heidi Klum, from a 10, it was good to see the number associated with more positive news.
“Our focus in 2015 has been firmly on becoming licenced, while still growing the business – both targets the IIS team has hit after a lot of hard work,” Edmonds said.
IIS currently has over $950 million in funds under management across its five Russell Investment Funds PIE products, covering NZ and global equities and fixed income asset classes.
“Each of the Russell Investment Funds is actively managed in accordance with Russell Investments manager-of-managers investment philosophy and process,” he said.
Edmonds said IIS business partners were also instrumental in helping the firm meet the rigorous FMA licensing standards.
“The input that we have got from industry experts like the team at Russell Investments and Alasdair McBeth at DLA Piper has been invaluable in the licencing process,” he said.
Under the Financial Markets Conduct Act (FMC) all fund managers will have to be licensed by the FMA before December 2016.
According to an FMA spokesperson, in addition to the 10 already-licensed MIS managers a further seven applications are currently being processed.
The spokesperson said while the potential number of MIS-approved managers could be over 100, the final tally would likely be lower as multiple entities may sit under a single licence.