State Street Corporate

Across the Asia-Pacific region, interest is growing in the cross-border recognition of registered funds, which would give investors access to a broader range of locally manufactured and regionally distributed products. Bringing such an Asian Funds Passport regime to fruition could yield significant benefits, but would require unprecedented cooperation among a fragmented and largely emerging market. This Vision Focus paper explores the challenges and opportunities associated with creating an Asia-Pacific passporting vehicle.

Driven by long-term demographic trends and the ramifications of the recent market crisis, the emerging environment for life insurers demands an evolution in product to reflect a more holistic approach to financial planning. To compete effectively, the life insurance business model will need to evolve. Outsourcing across the insurance company value chain will continue to increase, while access to capital and the flexibility to seek new financing will gain even greater importance.

The global financial crisis may have had its origins in macro-financial imbalances and unsustainable asset price increases, but it primarily manifested itself as a freeze of trading liquidity for bonds and credit-based derivatives. To consider the impact of the crisis on the worldwide market for fixed-income, in this Vision Focus paper we gathered executives from varying professional disciplines and regional responsibilities to discuss market events, public policy changes and the outlines of long-term market evolution.

Australia has one of the largest retirement fund pools per capita in the world. Given the significance of this pool relative to Australia’s total gross domestic product, the superannuation sector has come under unprecedented scrutiny with a series of major government reviews heightening the call for increased efficiency, greater engagement and ultimately improved returns. Understanding their implications will be critical for the industry as it looks to address the challenges and benefit from the opportunities this dynamic market presents.