Taskforce not so negative on managed funds

A recent meeting between the Investment Savings and Insurance Association (ISI) and the Capital Market Development Taskforce has been labelled as "positive" by ISI chief executive Vance Arkinstall.

Friday, September 18th 2009, 7:08AM

by Sonia Speedy

The ISI met with taskforce chairman Rob Cameron recently and Arkinstall says that far from taking a negative view of the managed funds industry, the taskforce is keen to broaden the investment and savings opportunities in New Zealand and to identify areas where changes, regulatory or otherwise, can be made to encourage and increase the level of savings made through managed fund products.

"Their interim report referred to things such as the Morningstar report - some people have translated that as being a bit of a negative. It isn't really because if you look at the Morningstar report it has identified areas were NZ could improve its game. So the taskforce are looking to build upon the ‘how we can improve' theme, rather than any other theme," Arkinstall says.

The Morningstar report released earlier this year assessed fund management practices in 16 countries, awarding NZ a D minus. Investor protection, prospectuses and shareholder reports and tax all scored particularly poorly.

Arkinstall says the issue is that NZ has a very small market, particularly in terms of its savings market and the global financial crisis has dented confidence in all sectors.

"Really it's a question of how best can we rebuild confidence and what do we need to make products such as managed funds more attractive to a greater number of people in the future," he says.

The taskforce suggests that moves by the industry to become more self-regulating or to introduce proposals before waiting for Government legislation would be viewed very positively.

"That's consistent with the direction the ISI wants to go, much more proactive and to improve its position of leadership in the industry," Arkinstall says.

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