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PFM’s Multi-Asset Class Management Practice Expands Product Offering to Broaden Manager Access and Leverage Purchasing Power

Asset growth enables firm to offer wider range of client services
In a move to broaden the financial solutions it provides to clients, PFM’s Multi-Asset Class Management (MACM) group is partnering with State Street Bank and Trust Company to introduce three sub-advised mutual funds: the PFM Multi-Manager Domestic Equity, PFM Multi-Manager International Equity and PFM Multi-Manager Fixed-Income funds.
“We’re excited to be able to offer these new solutions to our clients,” said PFM Managing Director Marc Ammaturo, who leads the MACM business along with PFM Managing Director John Spagnola. “Through aggregation of our clients’ assets, we are accessing professional investment managers in three distinct asset classes.”
PFM’s MACM team currently manages each client’s portfolio independently, and oversees institutional assets including endowments, foundations, hospitals, higher education organizations, Taft-Hartley funds, public pension, Other Post-Employment Benefit (OPEB) funds and insurance trusts. By pooling clients’ assets into these new mutual funds the MACM team will increase collective purchasing power.
“We have committed substantial resources in the belief that leveraging the majority of our clients’ purchasing power will enable those clients to experience a more optimal solution and better outcomes from a risk-reward standpoint,” noted Spagnola.
The ability to create registered mutual funds, funded from clients’ assets, was made possible by MACM’s success and growth. The group increased its discretionary assets under management from $1.5 billion in January 2012 to nearly $10.9 billion as of March 31, 2018. PFM’s asset management business overall had $86.8 billion in assets under management as of that date. The company also currently provides non-discretionary investment advisory services for $38.9 billion in assets.
“Our investment philosophy is not going to change,” Spagnola said. “We practice open architecture in how we customize client solutions, and we are purely independent in our approach. We are big believers in using passively managed index funds where it makes sense in efficient markets and then employing active managers where we think they can add incremental value over the benchmark. These mutual funds will continue to embrace that philosophy.”
PFM will receive no additional investment management fees from advisory clients for providing the mutual fund arrangement.
“I think our transparency is a big element as to why we’ve been successful,” Ammaturo added.
“We focus on transparency and disclosure when it comes to fees, not only at the investment adviser level but also at the underlying manager level.”
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Bitcoin, ether hit fresh highs

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Bitcoin hit a fresh high in Asian trading on Saturday, extending a two-month rally that saw its market capitalisation cross $1 trillion a day earlier.
The world’s most popular cryptocurrency rose to an record $56,620, taking its weekly gain to 18%. It has surged more than 92% this year.
Bitcoin’s gains have been fuelled by evidence it is gaining acceptance among mainstream investors and companies, such as Tesla Inc, Mastercard Inc and BNY Mellon.
Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization and daily volume, hit a record $2,040.62, for a weekly gain of about 12%.
Ether is the digital currency or token that facilitates transactions on the ethereum blockchain. In the crypto world, the terms ether and ethereum have become interchangeable.
Ether futures contracts launched on derivatives exchange CME earlier this month.
(Reporting by Vidya Ranganathan; Editing by William Mallard)
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World Bank pushing for standard vaccine contracts, more disclosure from makers

By Andrea Shalal
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The World Bank is working to standardize COVID-19 vaccine contracts that countries are signing with drug makers, and is pushing manufacturers to be more open about where doses are headed, as it races to get more vaccines to poor countries, the bank’s president said on Friday.
World Bank President David Malpass told Reuters he expected the bank’s board to have approved $1.6 billion in vaccine funding for 12 countries, including the Philippines, Bangladesh, Tunisia and Ethiopia, by the end of March, with 30 more to follow shortly thereafter.
The bank is working with local governments to identify and fill gaps in distribution capacity, after they purchase vaccines under a $12 billion World Bank program, and also to standardize the contracts they are signing with manufacturers, he said.
The bank’s International Finance Corp, its private financing arm, has $4 billion to invest in expanding existing production plants or building new ones, including in developed countries, but needs more data on where current production is headed, he said.
“We are eager to be investing in new capacity, but it’s hard to do because you don’t know how much of the existing capacity is already committed to the various off-takers,” Malpass said in an interview with Reuters. New or expanded plants could be used to produce other types of vaccinations in the future, he said.
The bank’s funds could be used to expand plants in advanced economies, if the production was earmarked for developing nations, he said.
Malpass welcomed Friday’s pledge by the Group of Seven rich countries to intensify cooperation on the pandemic, saying it could help jump-start deliveries of vaccines to poorer countries, which are lagging far behind rich countries in getting shots in arms.
Data compiled by Our World In Data, a scientific online publication, showed Israel was leading the world in COVID-19 vaccinations, with nearly 82 of 100 people vaccinated, while India and Bangladesh reported less than one person per 100, Many African countries have not started at all.
Malpass said he was heartened by news about new vaccines coming down the road, and about Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE seeking permission to store their vaccine at higher temperatures, which would ease another obstacle to deliveries in lower-income countries.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Heather Timmons and Leslie Adler)
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Google to evaluate executive performance on diversity, inclusion

By Paresh Dave
(Reuters) – Alphabet Inc’s Google will evaluate the performance of its vice presidents and above on team diversity and inclusion starting this year, the company said on Friday in one of several responses to concerns about its treatment of a Black scientist.
Timnit Gebru, co-leader of Google’s ethical artificial intelligence research team, said in December that Google abruptly fired her after she criticized its diversity efforts and threatened to resign.
Alphabet and Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai ordered a review of the situation. While Google declined to share specific findings, the company announced on Friday it will engage human resources specialists during sensitive employee departures.
Pichai in June said that by 2025, Google aims to have 30% more of its leaders come from underrepresented groups, with a focus on Black, Latinx and Native American leaders in the United States and female technical leaders globally. About 96% of Google’s U.S. leaders at the time were white or Asian, and 73% globally were men.
As a result of the investigation, the company also expanded a commitment announced in June to devote more resources to retaining and promoting existing employees, including by expanding a team addressing disputes among workers and their managers.
The diversity component of executive performance reviews was not previously announced, and the company did not immediately share details about what would be measured and how pay would be affected.
Alphabet for years had rejected proposals from shareholders and employees to set diversity goals and tie executive pay to them.
Irene Knapp, a former Google employee who advocated for one such proposal at a 2018 shareholder meeting, said on Friday, “I am pleased that they met our demand from 2018, which was a bare minimum that should have been easy to do immediately.”
Evaluating managers on diversity goals is becoming more commonplace. McDonald’s Corp on Thursday tied executive bonuses to diversity.
(Reporting by Paresh Dave; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)