Future Fund could ‘pave the way’ for transparency

InvestorDaily

Morningstar has repeated its calls for Australia to improve its “watered down” portfolio holdings disclosure rules following the release of new benchmarks for the Future Fund. Annika Bradley, Morningstar Australasia’s director of manager research ratings, told InvestorDaily that the Future Fund “has the opportunity to pave the way for transparency across the industry”. “We’d like to see as much transparency to the end investor as possible,” she said.

The new disclosure obligations for Australia’s sovereign wealth fund, which were released earlier this month, are said to be “broadly consistent” to the rules that apply to super funds, according to Minister for Finance Katy Gallagher. Specifically, the Future Fund board will be required to publish information on the amounts of cash held in financial institutions, the amount and value of shares invested in companies, and the level of investments in properties and infrastructure. In a report published in May, Morningstar branded Australia as being the weakest market for fund disclosure requirements in the developed world.

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