News Round Up

ING once again a star, what you should be doing this week, Task Force update, more weeks of MONEY.

Monday, March 14th 2005, 6:34AM

ING has once again taken out the top award in the Morningstar Fund Manager of the Year 2004.

Besides being named the fund manager of the year it also won two of the categories. The awards are based on a combination of quantitative research and one-year performance to December 31.

“ING had an outstanding year, winning the multi-sector and property categories, and being a finalist in New Zealand fixed interest and NZ/Australian equities and mortgages,” Morningstar says.

“The investment team at ING has been together for many years, and has consistently achieved excellent results, adding value for investors with an active growth investment style. ING has also been innovative in offering a range of new funds that have gained wide acceptance in the market.”

Other winners included Asteron, ASB Group Investments, BNZ, Fisher Funds and the National Bank.

Things to you can do this week
The big event this week is the annual FundSource investment conference that is being held in Auckland this Friday.

Keynote topics include: a session on strategies for seeking performance in a low return environment for international equities, presented by two offshore speakers.

A look at how finance companies manage risk and how an average investor can assess that exposure when investing, plus the head of the taskforce on adviser regulation, Michael Webb, will lead a discussion on this issue.

Also this week Macquarie continue its roadshows on its new high-yielding debt securities offer – Fortress Notes.

In Wellington on Thursday there is a session, organised by Women in Super, looking at how state sector workers selected investment options in their workplace savings scheme. (The session is open to non-members). For more details on these and other events check out the Good Returns Diary.

Task Force update
The Financial Intermediaries Task Force says it has received more than 250 responses to its questionnaire and over 75 responses to its issues paper.

Task force chair Michael Webb said the task force was very pleased with the number and detail of the responses they have received.

“We’ve received responses from both the industry and consumers that are all providing us with very useful information and ideas,” Webb said.

The responses are being analysed to "help us identify what the key issues are," he says. “We’ll then look at what options there might be to address those issues and set these out, along with the issues we’ve identified, in an options paper.

Two more weeks for MONEY
Liontamer has extended the closing date for its latest MONEY fund by two weeks to Aprill 22.

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