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1 month ago | 
moneymag.com.au | Eliza Bavin |Nicola Field |Karren Vergara
Fronting the Senate Economics Committee, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) confirmed internal communications between staff at AustralianSuper played a significant role in shaping its case against the super fund. Senator Andrew Bragg, reading from the judgement that was recently handed down against AustralianSuper, asked ASIC commissioner Sarah Court about the communications.
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1 month ago | 
moneymag.com.au | Karren Vergara |Nicola Field
ASIC is setting its sights on the private markets sector, flagging it will pay particular attention to the surging popularity of opaque private debt investments. The regulator lays out its concerns in discussion paper, Australia's evolving capital markets: A discussion paper on the dynamics between public and private markets, putting forth a host of reasons why the sector may need its intervention.
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1 month ago | 
moneymag.com.au | Nicola Field |Karren Vergara |Mark Chapman
Australia's biggest super fund has copped a $27 million fine. Where does the money for the fine come from? And who really pays? AustralianSuper, Australia's largest superannuation fund (by a country mile), has been hit with a $27 million fine after the Federal Court found it failed to combine multiple member accounts. In a nutshell, over a 10-year period to March 2023, around 90,700 AustralianSuper members held duplicate accounts.
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2 months ago | 
moneymag.com.au | Karren Vergara |Vita Palestrant |Sharyn McCowen
The Federal Court today slapped AustralianSuper with a $27 million fine for dragging its feet on a multiple account bungle that lasted more than four years. Judge Hespe found that AustralianSuper failed to promptly identify and merge members' multiple accounts in the way the law required for the period between March 13, 2019 and May 11, 2023. Some 42,551 beneficiaries were affected. ASIC instigated action in October 2024, alleging that the $360 billion super fund's misdeeds stretched back 10 years.
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Jan 16, 2025 | 
financialstandard.com.au | Karren Vergara
Despite the raging bull market, and lower inflation and unemployment levels, JPMorgan Chase chief executive Jamie Dimon is "cautiously pessimistic" about the US economy in 2025. Dimon said in a CBS interview that geopolitical tensions underpin his stance in the face of the US reporting GDP levels that were equivalent to Europe but are now 30% higher.
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Jan 16, 2025 | 
financialstandard.com.au | Karren Vergara
Money pouring into global exchange-traded funds (ETF) hit a record high of US$1.9 trillion during 2024, new insights from research firm ETFGI shows. SSGA's SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) raked in the highest net inflows of US$626 billion during the year, followed by Vanguard's S&P 500 ETF (VOO) with US$583.7 billion and BlackRock's iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV) at US$579.3 billion.
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Jan 14, 2025 | 
financialstandard.com.au | Karren Vergara
MUFG Pension & Market Services (MPMS) has awarded Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) a mandate to help transform its retirement solutions business. MUFG Retirement Solutions will implement TCS software such as its BFSI Platform, which caters to the life insurance, pension, and annuities industries. The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) also outlines joint initiatives in product development, market expansion, and sales and product enhancement.
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Jan 14, 2025 | 
financialstandard.com.au | Karren Vergara
Nearly one in five pension funds face liquidity risks particularly as they increase allocations to private assets, a new survey shows. The study of pension funds from the UK, US, the Netherlands, Canada, and the Nordics by Ortec Finance reveals many are not equipped to manage adverse liquidity scenarios, particularly in the long term. Some 18% of pension funds, which collectively manage US$1.5 trillion, do not have enough liquidity to withstand adverse scenarios.
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Jan 13, 2025 | 
financialstandard.com.au | Karren Vergara
Blackstone, KKR, and Carlyle are among the private equity firms that will collectively pay the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) US$63.1 million for failing to keep appropriate communications records. They join a growing list of financial institutions that have violated federal securities regulation for using unapproved communication methods or "off-channel communications," according to the SEC. Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co (KKR) will pay US$11 million in civil penalties.
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Jan 13, 2025 | 
financialstandard.com.au | Karren Vergara
Channel Investment Management has scored a responsible entity (RE) mandate from a global real estate fund manager to oversee another two strategies. CBRE Investment Management's Global Infrastructure Securities Fund and Global Property Securities Fund are now under the remit of Channel IM. The Global Property Securities Fund is actively managed and invests in a portfolio of 60% to 90% global real estate equities.
