Institutional investment in Australia is both highly innovative and complex. The regulatory focus – and associated literature – on institutional investment has been on the sell-side. Considerably less attention has been paid to the buy-side, that is to the institutional investors themselves. This research report outlines the structure of Australian superannuation funds and discusses the governance aspects of superannuation fund trustees relevant to investment decision-making. The report also examines the superannuation fund trustee’s investment responsibilities in the context of investment in complex financial products. We have chosen to focus on synthetic CDOs. This research report is the first study in Australia of the governance of institutional investors when investing in synthetic CDOs. We have also created a practical check-list of the key aspects of synthetic CDOs that superannuation fund trustees should understand before investing in synthetic CDOs.
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