The service, called Spectrum, offers more than 20 investment strategies from investment advisers that include BlackRock Investment Management, BNY Mellon Asset Management Japan, Capital International, CenterSquare Investment Management, Henderson Global Investors, Lazard Asset Management, Mellon Capital Management Corporation, The Boston Company Asset Management, and UOB Asset Management.
BNY Mellon said it selected the investment advisers and strategies for Spectrum using a “rigorous” due diligence process that focused on both quantitative and qualitative analysis.
“Through Spectrum, we will work closely with our new partners to shape the evolving landscape into one that best meets the needs of high net worth individuals in the region,” said BNY Mellon Investment Management Asia Pacific chief executive Alan Harden.
BNY Mellon will also partner with private banks in Hong Kong and Singapore to make these strategies available to investors through Spectrum.
“Spectrum is about transparency, control and choice,” said AJ Harper, president and chief executive for BNY Mellon Managed Investments, the firm’s Asia Pacific SMA business.
“It enables wealth managers to let investors see all the holdings in an investment strategy and control the composition. We believe it is a major breakthrough for Asian wealth management because individual investors will be able to do this with strategies managed by some of the world’s top investment advisers.”
Diverse range
The strategies offered on Spectrum provide a “diverse range” of Asian, global and thematic investment portfolios suitable for Asian investors with customization such as strategies being made available in an investor’s currency of choice. Investors can also customize any strategy by excluding a certain security, sector or country to meet their own investment preferences, including social responsibility.
BNY Mellon said this “level of customization”, which was until now usually reserved for institutional investors with at least US$100m, is now available to individual investors at US$1m.
Robert Prugue, chief executive of Lazard Asset Management, said: “Here in Asia, our strategies to date have mainly been offered to institutional investors only. The launch of this SMA platform provides us with a significant opportunity, as it opens a new distribution channel in Asia.”
Except for UOB Asset Management, which is regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, other investment advisers selected on the platform are licensed in their local jurisdictions and not with the Securities and
Futures Commission in Hong Kong or the Monetary Authority of Singapore.BNY Mellon received a license from the SFC last June to offer Spectrum in Hong Kong, while it recently was accorded a capital markets services license from the MAS.
