Quants seek out Singaporean investors

Singapore

FACTOR investing, a strategy to define and invest in granular characteristics of securities that have historically achieved high returns, is enjoying a revival.

The interest is not just confined to big pension funds in the institutional space. In Singapore, at least two fund houses have been working with local distributors to introduce factor investing to high net worth investors.

OCBC Bank's private banking arm Bank of Singapore (BOS) is offering its clients a strategy run by asset management giant BlackRock, which it calls the BOS Market Essentials Mandate. Launched in September, the strategy has raised more than US$80 million of funds as at mid-October.

Tang Hsiao Ching, BOS head of advisory and sales in managed investments, said the move aims to keep the bank up to date with the latest in low-cost exchange-traded fu…