This week…
| Products |
| Although the majority (84%) of Hong Kong retail investors felt sustainable investing is more important to them now compared to five years ago, only 55% said they have increased their sustainable investments over the same period, which is lower than their global (64%) and Asia (68%) counterparts, according to a survey conducted by Schroder Investment Management…
Year-to-date ending September, Asia-domiciled hedge funds performed 12.54%, outperforming products offered by managers located in the UK, US and continental Europe, according to an Evestment report. Aggregate returns for all hedge funds reached 5.92%, which is higher than the full year 5.69% performance in 2016… Smart beta ETFs in the US picked up steam last month, especially in comparison to plain vanilla equity ETFs, according to a Factset report. Overall, smart beta ETFs gained $1.3bn of market share, while vanilla funds lost $2.4bn… |
| Business and people moves |
| Natixis Global Asset Management is looking to expand in Asia-Pacific through acquisitions and organically, Fabrice Chemouny, who took up the role of APAC head last month, said in a statement. “There are three strands to our growth plan in Asia-Pacific: organic growth, acquisitions and partnerships.” The firm is currently looking across the region for businesses or teams that will expand its global offering, particularly in pan-Asian equities, fixed income and alternatives…
Schroders has appointed Keiko Kondo in the newly created role of deputy head for multi-asset investments for Asia. Reporting to Patrick Brenner, head of multi-asset investments for Asia, Kondo will be responsible for helping manage target return portfolios in Asia, as well as contributing to our global investment process. Previously, Kondo was UBS Asset Management’s head of multi-asset for Asia-Pacific… Vanguard has appointed Freddie Chan as its head of portfolio review for China. In this newly created role, Chen will oversee Vanguard’s product strategy for China and will report to Charles Lin, managing director and head of China, and Yan Pu, head of portfolio review for Asia. Before Vanguard, Chen was previously a managing director at China Asset Management in Hong Kong. |
| Institutions |
| Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) has partnered with Alpha Investment Partners (Alpha) and Keppel Data Centres for an initial allocation of up to $350m in the Alpha Data Centre Fund (ADCF), with the option to invest another $150m. ADCF aims to develop a quality portfolio of new and existing data centre assets in Asia-Pacific and Europe. ADCF was launched in July last year by Alpha, which is the private fund management arm of Keppel Capital… |
| Regulation and enforcement |
| The Securities and Futures Commission has prohibited Xu Tao, a former investment consultant at China International Capital Corporation Hong Kong Securities, from re-entering the industry for four months. The SFC found that Xu used his mobile phone and Wechat messaging application to accept order instructions from 13 clients in 2015. Under the regulator’s code of conduct, the use of mobile phones for receiving client order instructions is strongly discouraged…
The SFC and the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) are working on a new system for Stock Connect, which would give both regulators direct, real-time line of sight into cross-market trades at the client level, Ashley Alder, SFC’s CEO, said during Thomson Reuters’ Pan Asian Regulatory Summit. The new system is expected to begin for northbound trades around the middle of next year. At about the same time, it is expected that the CSRC will provide an equivalent level of transparency for the SFC to cover all southbound trading… The Monetary Authority of Singapore’s Cyber Security Advisory Panel (CSAP) discussed strategies to enhance the cyber resilience of Singapore’s financial sector at its inaugural this month. The discussions covered areas ranging from regulatory guidance, supervision and surveillance to insformation and capability development… |
