Former Fisher Funds CIO Frank Jasper, has resurfaced in the industry as a member of the ASB investment committee.
Jasper was named as a new member of the ASB investment committee in the latest fund updates for the bank-owned provider more than two years after he exited Fisher mid-2021 in a left-field move to the chief financial officer job at a trucking software start-up.
Jax Mitchell and Justine Sefton also debut as members of the ASB investment committee, which has oversight of the more than $20 billion held in the bank’s KiwiSaver and retail funds products.
Mitchell took on the role of ASB general manager wealth, insurance and partnerships last November following the earlier move up the ladder of Adam Boyd to executive general manager personal banking.
Boyd previously held the ASB wealth position in an executive capacity with its top-table ranking ‘disestablished’ in the new line-up.
Sustainable investing specialist, Sefton, wears several hats including as deputy chair of Impact Investing Network Aotearoa NZ.
Although all three new investment committee members were appointed some time ago, they appeared in formal fund updates for the first time in the June 2023 reports.
Jasper is something of a surprise package in the passive-leaning ASB committee given his history in the highly active Fisher camp.
However, he said the ASB governance role was appealing on a couple of levels.
“I was probably always going to do something in the investment industry again if the right opportunity came up,” Jasper said. “And I genuinely believe in the KiwiSaver ‘thing’ and why it’s important we get it right.”
He said as well as contributing to the broad investment direction such as strategic asset allocation settings, the ASB committee responsibilities cover issues such as climate change and client communications.
“It’s not enough just to be a good investment manager, we need to bring investors along on the journey – helping them make good decisions through all market conditions.”
The Wanaka-based Jasper has also stepped back from CFO to a board position on the trucking compliance software business, Whip Around.
Meanwhile, ASB has recently made a significant change to its global equities strategy after adopting the same ‘Paris-aligned’ benchmark as the NZ Superannuation Fund (NZS) in September.
The ASB international shares portfolios now track the MSCI World ex Australia Climate Paris Aligned Index (50 per cent hedged). Previously, the bank-owned schemes followed the broad MSCI World (ex Australia) benchmark.
The NZS moved to the off-the-rack MSCI Paris index last year, shedding thousands of stocks in the process: it is understood the ASB portfolios are also a little lighter post the change – albeit not on the same scale.
ASB hired BlackRock in 2021 as investment adviser with the global fund giant also taking care of back-office and some funds management duties. BlackRock is underlying manager for all of the ASB global equities (ex Australia), commodities and ‘green’ bond portfolios. State Street manages Australasian equities and most of the ASB global fixed income assets while First Sentier covers NZ cash and bonds.
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia-owned entity is the second-largest KiwiSaver behind ANZ with more than $14.4 billion under management as at the end of March this year.