Standard& Poor’s (S&P) is preparing to launch a ratings system for managed funds in a move designed to bolster its already considerable push into the Australian funds management research arena.
The research house already rates cash management and bond funds, but will move into the qualitative rating of all equity based funds in the second half of this year, S&P Fund Services director David Collins says.
“This would be an extension of what we are already doing in the US and Europe,” he says.
Collins says S&P will leverage off the group’s global resources to contest the already highly competitive Australian funds research market.
The move follows the announcement last week that S&P had launched a ratings system for master trusts and wrap accounts, to be called the Master Trust Evaluation.
The new service will rank master trusts and wrap platforms as either extremely strong, very strong, strong, satisfactory or weak.
S&P is also developing a hedge fund index to offer to the Australian market in the third quarter of this year.
The index will contain 40 funds divided into the three sub-indices of arbitrage, event driven and tactical, which in turn will incorporate nine specific strategies including macro, equity long/short and managed futures.
According to Collins, S&P will also consider rating hedge funds at some stage in the future.
