News Round Up: June 27

Lonsec tops research house survey; Regulation number one issue for wealth management; Sovereign to host ground breaking UN talks.

Monday, June 27th 2011, 7:10AM

Lonsec tops research house survey
Lonsec has been rated as the number one research house in a survey by Money Management magazine.

"Once again the favourite research house among fund managers was Lonsec, made evident by the ratings house's outperformance in almost every category," said Money Management.
The survey rated research houses on research methodology, the quality and experience of its research team, transparency, turnaround time of research and fund manager feedback.

Lonsec research manager Darren Howlin said, "The results of this survey are important to us as they demonstrate that investment managers believe our research accurately reflects their investment capabilities. That's not only important for the investment managers, it's important for advisers and their clients."

Regulation No.1 challenge to wealth management sector, says PwC
Increased regulation and associated costs present the main challenge to business growth in the wealth management sector, according to a PricewaterhouseCooper's survey.

The PwC Global Private Banking and Wealth Management Survey also found new regulations are also making clients more demanding.

Mark Russell, PwC New Zealand financial services partner, said, "Clients are taking a much more active interest and wealth managers have to work harder to earn long-term loyalty and trust."

While the survey found 30% of respondents said new regulations would significantly impact their operating costs, 57% of CEOs believe the new regulations are beneficial.

Sovereign to host landmark UN meeting
A United Nations-facilitated meeting in Auckland in August will develop ground-breaking new sustainability principles for the global insurance sector.

The talks are designed to help the insurance industry better address environmental and social concerns, and risk.

"As an industry, we're laying down a great challenge," says Charles Anderson, CEO of Sovereign, which is hosting the meeting. "This initiative will lay the foundations for a global insurance industry that will be stronger, better adapted to the needs of the environment, and better able to make a positive difference in people's lives."

The Principles for Sustainable Insurance Regional Consultation Meeting for Oceania, to be held at Auckland's Hilton Hotel on 12 August is one of seven meetings being held around the world ahead of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (‘Rio+20 Conference') in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in May 2012.

The Oceania talks will be hosted by The United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI), a strategic partnership between UNEP and the global financial sector; in collaboration with Sovereign, the UNEP FI Insurance Commission Board member for Oceania; the Investment Savings and Insurance Association; and the Insurance Council of Australia.

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