Vinva Investment Management and Schroders and Cooper Investments have signed onto diversity campaign Future IM/Pact, in an effort to attract more women into working in investment management. Launched a year ago, Future IM/Pact aims to attract more talent into the investment teams of super funds and fund managers, with an initial focus on appealing to women in university. The project was established following research in 2016 showing women comprised 24 per cent of Australian investment professionals.

The wealth platform provider has posted a 108 per cent increase in total funds under administration to $16.1 billion over the year to 30 June. Praemium’s Australian platform experienced a 24 per cent increase in FUA to $6.9 billion from net inflows of $1 billion. Australian revenue increased 14 per cent over financial year 2019 to $31.4 million. Australian EBITDA increased 21 per cent to $15.2 million, compared to $12.4 million for FY18. EBITDA margins were 48 per cent of revenue, up from the prior year’s 45 per cent.

The investment case for advancing gender equality in corporations is strong and clear with a proven bottom line for diverse financial institutions according to a new report. Evaluating the glass ceiling, a new study by Calvert Research and Management has outlined the business case for corporations to support more diverse workforces throughout the organisations with a clear impact on the company’s bottom line. Calvert, an Eaton Vance responsible investing affiliate, said that investors needed to push for changes as it would have a material impact on long-term shareholder value.

A recent study by MSCI found that companies with at least three women on their boards had median increases of 10 per cent in return on equity and 37 per cent on earnings per share. In contrast companies with no female board members had decreases of 1 per cent and 8 per cent respectively. A McKinsey analysis further confirmed that companies in the top quartile for diversity on executive teams were 21 per cent more likely to outperform on profitability and 27 per cent more likely to have superior value creation.

The rest of this article can be found at investordaily.com.au.

BlackRock’s Australian arm has partnered up with VicSuper to develop and launch its new unlisted iShares ESG Global Bond Index Fund, with the companies reporting increased demand from Australian investors for sustainable products. The fund is benchmarked to a customised Bloomberg Barclays MSCI Global Aggregate SRI Select ex-Fossil Fuels Index (Australian dollar hedged). It applies the MSCI’s SRI method, excluding issuers across eight filters: tobacco, alcohol, gambling, military weapons, civilian firearms, nuclear power, adult entertainment, genetically modified organisms (GMOs) along with fossil fuels.

Despite the financial services industry remaining Australia’s largest, there are still deficiencies such as a lack of women in senior management roles and a failure to maximise exports, the Financial Services Council has ruled in a new report. The council’s 2019 State of the Industry report stated the sector now contributes $161 billion or 9 per cent the nation’s $2 trillion economy. The report also found Australian superannuation as at 2017, gained the highest five-year returns in the developed world, with the real annual return from 2012 to 2017 being 7.5 per cent, in comparison to other markets giving an average of 3.8 per cent.