Huxford schedules exit as ANZ lines up Mercer, BlackRock for investment services | Investment News NZ

ANZ Investments chief investment officer, Paul Huxford, will leave the business at the end of this year after the country’s largest non-government fund manager revealed new potential arrangements with Mercer and BlackRock.

The bank confirmed today that Huxford would end a five-year stint as CIO this December in a move that coincides with ANZ signing a non-binding memorandum of understanding with Mercer to access its “global expertise in investments and investment governance”.

At the same time, the $30 billion plus fund manager, which runs the country’s largest KiwiSaver book of about $20 billion, has inked a similar deal with BlackRock to provide risk management services.

Fiona Mackenzie, ANZ head of funds management, said in a statement that the group was “proud of the service we provide to our more than 650,000 customers”.

“However, to ensure we stay competitive and continue to meet the changing needs of our customers, our business model needs to continue to adapt and evolve,” Mackenzie said.

BlackRock, which also revealed plans to front a $2 billion infrastructure fund in partnership with the NZ government this week, is the world’s largest asset manager with almost US$10 trillion under management while its Aladdin risk management system is the most widely used in the global investment sector.

Previously, managed duties such as asset allocation and risk settings in-house with the prospective outsourcing deal aligning it with other large providers including AMP and ASB, which both appointed BlackRock over the last couple of years for investment services.

However, AMP and ASB also use BlackRock as underlying investment manager for their largely index-style strategies. ANZ has long followed an active management approach with a significant in-house team running Australasian assets and a panel of external managers including Northern Trust, MFS and Maple-Brown Abbott.

“ANZ remains an active investor and will continue to select assets that we believe will perform strongly over the long term,” Mackenzie said.

The bankj-owned investment business has been through a major leadership overhaul during the previous 12 months under Mackenzie, who took up the newly created job last January.

ANZ has started a process to replace Huxford, the ANZ note says.