Otsuka joined MIS in June. He was formerly the head of corporate strategy and development for Invesco in Japan. His title is representative director and president of Mercer Investment Solutions Japan.
MIS will target Japan’s institutional investors, including foreign capital pension sponsors and financial institutions based in Japan that need risk-focused investment solutions.
MIS offers a management service to asset owners, including management of their asset pools, the implementation of investment strategy, asset allocation, risk, returns and governance.
“A challenging global investment environment, aging population and public pension fund decisions last year for revised asset allocations to achieve higher growth returns make Japan the logical market to introduce our delegated investment solutions offering in Asia,” said Jeffrey Schutes, investment business leader at Mercer.
In late 2014, Japan’s $1.2trn Government Investment Pension Fund announced plans to dramatically increase domestic and foreign equity exposure while cutting positions in domestic bonds.
Mercer hopes to launch MIS in other Asian markets in the coming months.
According to the firm, the delegated solutions business segment had $136bn in assets under management in North America, Europe and Australia as of 30 June 2015.
