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May 18, 2011

New Russell appointment responds to Australian institutions' demand for tailored indexes

Matt Wacher appointed to lead Russell's index development in Australia and New Zealand

SYDNEY, May 18, 2011 - Global financial services firm and leading index provider, Russell Investments today announced the appointment of Matt Wacher as Regional Director, Indexes, Australia and New Zealand, in response to growing client demand for tailored index solutions.

Based in Sydney, Mr Wacher will be part of Russell's global index team and will be directly responsible for growing the regional business across the Russell Indexes product suite. This will include taking several new indexes to market over the next 12 months and working closely with clients and prospects to develop customised indexes.

Russell has over 25 years' experience in index construction and innovation both in the US and globally, with 98% of the investable global equity market represented by Russell's global indexes. In the US alone, more assets are benchmarked to the Russell family of indexes than to all the other US equity indexes combined. Of the US$3.9 trillion in assets benchmarked to Russell Indexes, a significant portion is benchmarked to the Russell 2000 small cap and Russell 1000 large cap indexes, two of Russell's most renowned indexes.

According to Russell, Australian clients are following in the footsteps of US institutions who have increased their demand for customised benchmarks that more closely match their investment strategies. Russell will also be looking to target investment banks, ETF providers and fund managers with its Australian indexes. These clients, Russell says are looking for support building investable products which rely on an index, such as ETFs.

In Australia, Russell is expecting to launch solutions based on existing and highly developed US Russell indexes as well as new offerings tailored to individual client needs. Russell's current offerings in the Australian market include 10 core indexes including large, mid and small cap, all with value and growth tilt sub-indexes.

Chris Corneil, CEO Russell Investments, Australasia said “Russell Indexes holds a strong position in the global market and we're excited to bring those globally developed capabilities to the Australian business. From conversations with clients it's become clear that now is the time to bring Russell's index capabilities to the local market and support the growing demand for bespoke index solutions.”

The strengthening of Russell's Australian index capabilities coincides with this week's launch of Russell's investment discipline indexes in the US. The six new indexes are designed to target commonly practiced investment disciplines and specific approaches to security selection practiced by professional investment managers. The investment approaches covered by the indexes are; aggressive growth, consistent growth, equity income, low PE and contrarian investing. The launch of the investment discipline indexes is just one example of the innovations Russell has developed internationally in indexes, and an indication of the type of strategies Russell may look to develop for the Australian market.

Prior to joining Russell Investments, Mr Wacher was the Head of Institutional Sales and Product for CMC Markets, Tokyo, where he was directly involved in the launch of CMC's Tokyo operations. Mr Wacher brings with him over 15 years' financial markets experience working in Sydney, London and Tokyo during this time Mr Wacher has filled institutional sales, senior trading and product development roles across cash and derivatives, equities, credit and FX markets.

“Today investors of every size are fundamentally reviewing their risk appetites and moving away from pure-return approaches in favour of more thoughtful outcome-oriented solutions. Russell is responding with sophisticated new investment strategies that bring to bear every combination of Russell's unique strengths. Matt's appointment allows us to maximise the benefit of Russell's strength in index design and construction for the benefit of local institutional clients, investment managers and product developers,” Mr Corneil concluded.