News round-up

New AIA CEO named; Super fund makes a loss in January; Guide for disclosure of credit ratings.

Monday, March 1st 2010, 5:28AM

New AIA chief executive named
Insurer AIA has named a new chief executive to take over the role formerly held by David Pierce.

Pierce resigned last year and returned to the United States, since then the business has had an interim CEO.

The new, ex bank CEO, starts this week. Details here

[COMMENT] IN bricks and mortar we (will still) trust
It was a bit of coincidence that as we were finishing an article on what the government’s utterings about tax and property investment really meant when it put out the response to the Capital Markets Taskforce. [Find out why]

Super fund makes a loss in January
The New Zealand Superannuation Fund recorded a 1.97% loss in January, bringing its performance in the first seven months of its financial year to 15%.

The fund's investment income has added $2.12 billion to the $13.53 billion of taxpayer payments since 2003/2004, an equivalent annual return of 5.8%. These figures represent an estimated 13.5% better return from the fund's managed investments compared to what would have been a passive investment in Treasury Bills.

Other than the profit or loss figures, the fund does not comment on its release of the monthly performance statistics. Last month's loss was minor compared to its worst month, September 2008, when the fund lost 7.96% of its value.

Almost 37% of the fund's investments are in large cap international equities, and another 17% in international fixed income. Timber makes up 7.6% of the fund's investment.

Guide for disclosure of credit ratings
The Securities Commission released interim guidelines for non-bank deposit takers (NBDTs) on the disclosure of credit ratings at the end of last week.

Mandatory credit rating requirements for NBDTs come into effect today.

"Credit ratings are important to help investors to assess the risks of an investment," commission chair Jane Diplock says.

"Deposit takers must ensure they give investors clear information about their credit ratings and what those ratings mean, and that reverences to credit ratings are not likely to mislead or confuse."

The Reserve Bank is the prudential regulator, while the Securities Commission has the responsibility for the enforcement of disclosure requirements under the Securities Act.

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