The St George Banking Group has moved swiftly to allay any fears fund managers may have about the role and place ofAssirt Researchin the group, saying the ratings process would remain unchanged.
The group held a briefing with fund managers in Sydney on Friday with St George head of investments and insurance Nick Basile stating Assirt would not change its process nor would it make any further changes to key roles in the group.
His comments follow on from the departure of Caroline Saunders who had been heading up Assirt since July last year. At present the group is searching for a replacement and head of sales Rebecca Jacques has taken on the role of acting head of Assirt.
Jacques says Assirt will continue to provide ratings and industry research and the only significant change will be in terms of reporting lines for the group.
Under moves announced last week Assirt will shift from being under Sealcorp and reporting through to its head, Ian Knox, and will now be housed under the newly established Investment Centre of Excellence (ICE) and report straight through to Basile.
However Jacques says this move will not result in the separation of the research and asset allocation functions of Assirt.
“Those two parts of the business are already run by separate teams but there are no plans to split them outside of the business. The main change going ahead rather is the physical separation of the business in the group and the move into ICE,” Jacques says.
Jacques has also stated the group will continue with its plans to enhance resources in line with previous appointments including Kathleen Cave as head of ratings, Julie Orr in the area of the group’s quarterly market share report and Leanne Taylor in asset allocation.
