RaboDirect also took the top spot in the Term Deposit (long term) category.

These latest awards, which are part of the Financial Review Smart Investor Blue Ribbon Awards for 2012, were announced in the magazine today.  The Blue Ribbon Awards are given to Australia’s highest quality, lowest cost products, as chosen by Smart Investor and research houses Morningstar, Infochoice, Lonsec and Rice Warner Actuaries.

Spokesperson for RaboDirect, Renee Amor said, “RaboDirect’s goal has always been to help consumers make the most of their savings so it is particularly gratifying to be awarded the Savings Institute of the Year. And it’s just as rewarding being recognized for the strength of our long term deposits offering because we pride ourselves on building long term relationships with our customers.

“We have been enjoying a successful year in terms of growth and having award winning products no doubt helps with this. In June this year APRA reported that RaboDirect had the biggest deposit balance inflows, growing by 60 per cent over 12 months and by three per cent just in the month of April.”

The Blue Ribbon honours come off the back of the third instalment of RaboDirect’s highly successful “Steal back your dreams” campaign which urges people to move their money from low interest bearing transaction accounts to high interest savings accounts. The campaign has been shortlisted for a Golden Effie award this year after taking home the gong in 2011.

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The awards aim to provide a comprehensive, independent evaluation of banking, insurance and investment products in the market and are recognised as the industry’s premier awards.

In Australia, PIMCO manages more than $30 billion across a comprehensive range of fixed interest and risk overlay strategies for large superannuation funds, institutional investors, self managed super funds, and thousands of individual investors.

PIMCO’s portfolio team is headed by Robert Mead, Head of Portfolio Management. Mr Mead said PIMCO was pleased to have won the award for the second successive year.

“The PIMCO team always focuses on identifying the safest forms of fundamentally sound risk-adjusted returns,” Mr Mead said.

“In Australia, we achieve this by preferring Residential Mortgage-backed Securities (“RMBS”), Australian bank bonds and other high quality corporate bonds.

“In this New Normal environment, we expect ongoing market volatility, which requires increased allocations to liquid assets in order to be able to capitalise upon opportunities as they arise,” Mr Mead said.

Morningstar, a leading provider of independent investment research which undertook the fund analysis for the Financial Review Smart Investor Blue Ribbon Awards 2011, said the EQT/PIMCO Australian Bond Fund is a top-notch vehicle for investing in Australian bonds.

“Robert Mead leads a high-powered and extremely proficient team, plugged into the immense network of knowledge wielded by the firm and drawing on the house’s acknowledged mastery of and expertise in fixed interest investing,” Morningstar said. “These characteristics all make the PIMCO/EQT Australian Bond Fund a champion among fixed income funds.”

The primary filter for the Financial Review Smart Investor Blue Ribbon Awards is Morningstar Recommendations, which are qualitative assessments. The next filter is quantitative, based on peer-relative risk-adjusted assessments of fund performances over one, three, five, and where applicable 10 years. The final filter is the one-year performance ranking, as these are annual awards.

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The S&P Fund Awards are now in their eighth year in Australia and recognise excellence within the Australian fund management industry. The methodology is based on a qualitative assessment of specific investment-management capabilities within a sector, rather than being based on past performance of individual funds.

 Head of Research, Leanne Milton said: “S&P congratulates each of the finalists on their nominations. There are some familiar faces from the past, and a healthy mix of boutique and mainstream managers. We are also pleased to be able include two sector awards this year in Alternative Strategies to distinguish the large array of equity-based strategies from those that we consider true diversifiers for investor’s portfolios. In addition, we have introduced a Sustained Excellence award that will be presented to a fund manager that has distinguished itself by consistently winning its sector award over a number of years, including 2011.”

SECTOR FINALISTS (in alphabetical order)

Australian Fixed Interest

• AMP Capital Investors Ltd
• BlackRock Investment Management (Australia) Ltd – (Indexed)
• Colonial First State Global Asset Management Ltd
• PIMCO Australia Pty Ltd. (Equity Trustees Ltd)
• Tyndall Investment Management Ltd

 Global Fixed Interest (including Diversified)

• Bentham Asset Management Pty Ltd
• BlackRock Investment Management (Australia) Ltd – (Indexed)
• Macquarie Investment Management Ltd
• PIMCO Australia Pty Ltd. (Equity Trustees Ltd)
• Schroder Investment Management Australia Ltd

 Property

• AEW Capital Management L.P. (BT)
• AMP Capital Brookfield Pty Ltd
• CBRE Clarion Securities

 Alternative Equity Strategies

• Ascalon / Regal Asset Management
• Colonial First State Investments
• K2 Asset Management Ltd
• Platinum Asset Management

Alternative Diversified Strategies

• AQR Capital Management
• Aurora/ Barclays Capital Fund Solutions
• BlackRock Investment Management (AUS)
• Winton (Macquarie Professional Series)

 Australian Equities – Large-Cap

• FIL Investment Management Ltd (Australia)
• Greencape Capital Pty Ltd. (Challenger Managed Investments Ltd)
• Perennial Value Management (Perennial Investment Partners Ltd)
• Schroder Investment Management Australia Ltd
• Tyndall Investment Management Ltd

Australian Equities – Small-Cap

• Aviva Investors Australia Ltd
• Celeste Funds Management
• Eley Griffiths Group Pty Ltd
• Fairview Equity Partners Pty Ltd (nabInvest)
• Invesco Australia Ltd

 Global Equities – Developed Markets

• Arrowstreet Capital (Macquarie Professional Series)
• Grant Samuel (Epoch Investment Partners)
• Independent Franchise Partners (Macquarie Professional Series)
• Platinum Asset Management
• Walter Scott (Macquarie Professional Series)

 Global Equities – Emerging Markets

• Aberdeen Asset Management
• BT Investment Management (MFS International (UK) Ltd)
• Colonial First State Global Asset Management Ltd
• Schroder Investment Management Australia Ltd

 Multi-Sector

• Advance Asset Management Ltd
• BlackRock Investment Management (Australia) Ltd (Scientific)
• BT Investment Management Ltd. (Macro Strategy)
• Perpetual Investments
• Schroder Investment Management Australia Ltd

 GROUP FINALISTS (in alphabetical order)

 Product Distributor of the Year

• Challenger Managed Investments Limited
• Equity Trustees Limited
• Macquarie Professional Series
• Pinnacle Investment Management Ltd
• Zurich Investment Management Ltd

Fund Manager of the Year

• BlackRock Investment Management (Australia) Ltd
• Colonial First State Global Asset Management Ltd
• PIMCO Australia Pty Ltd. (Equity Trustees Ltd)
• Schroder Investment Management Australia Ltd
• Winton (Macquarie Professional Series)

 The awards will be announced at a business luncheon at The Ivy, Sydney, on Friday 14 October 2011.

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