Martin Lee @ Sg
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CPF Hiring Investment Manager

Someone pointed out to me that the CPF board was hiring an assistant/investment manager.

The job advertisement was posted on 31st August 2011 and expires on 30th September 2011.

Job Responsibilities

  • Review and implement investment processes and strategies.
  • Perform performance monitoring and due-diligence of fund managers.
  • Communicate with fund managers on compliance of investment guidelines.
  • Prepare market indicators using data from third party sources.
  • Perform asset rebalancing and transition management.
  • Liaise with Legal Services Department and fund managers on Investment Management Agreements or Deeds.
  • Analyse local corporate bond issuers in a broad range of industries through analysis of financial statements, assessment of third-party research, monitoring corporate developments and other analysis.
  • Prepare investment research reports to support recommendations and decisions.
  • Perform secretariat duties for Investment Committee meetings, including minute-writing.
  • Prepare the department’s budget and explanations for budget variations.
  • Perform ad-hoc administration tasks.

Job Requirements

  • A good Degree, preferably in Accountancy, Business Administration, Finance or Economics.
  • Candidate with Chartered Financial Analyst qualification preferred.
  • Good interpersonal and leadership skills; a good team player.
  • Good writing and numerical skills.

This makes me wonder what are the actual long term investment returns achieved by the CPF board using our CPF monies. Here, we have a “fund” able to provide us with guaranteed returns of 2.5% and 4% year after year but no one knows the actual underlying performance.

Or perhaps the information is out there. Does anyone know?

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Leave a Comment:

7 comments
Ethan says 12 years ago

Oh 1 last bit, I asked them why i couldnt find any information on the funds being managed by CPF, they said other than its current balance, no other information will be made transparent. Its all hush hush, especially on how the fund is managed.

Reply
Ethan says 12 years ago

I went to the interview. Actually this position is to help managed and investigate in all the trust unit, ETF, bonds that CPF investment branch handles. CPF have an internal team to make investment choices and does not solely depend on GIC as most would suspect. Its primary target is to fulfil the minimun requirement to satisfy the CPF interest rates. Additional income goes into a reserve to ensure continuity of the i/r payment even if the investment did not perform up to standard.

Note, if all money is pegged to the SG gov bond, if the bond was to under perform or just perform up to the standard of 4%. CPF will definitely make a loss. (remember up to 5% is given for the first 40k of SA and 3.5% for first 20k OA). Rest assured the investment portfolio is managed with minimum risk as priority.

Reply
    Martin Lee says 12 years ago

    Hi Ethan,

    Thanks for the update. Actually, I have always wondered why there is a need for so many different investment teams. GIC, Temasek, CPF, MAS. There’s bound to have a lot of duplication and waste of resources.

    Reply
DanielP says 12 years ago

Perhaps there could be further liberalisation of CPF investments into local listed corporate bonds

Reply
Data says 12 years ago

As far as I know CPF monies are all invested in SSGS (Special SGS) yielding 2.5% or 4% or now 5% for the first $60,000. The government guarantees these yields just like they do with SGS. The spread between the cost of these funds and the return the government (GIC, Temasek) can get over the long term (around 15-20%) goes to the reserves and (a little bit) to regular expenditure. Whether this is a fair arrangement for CPF members is a political question.

So I believe this investment manager position is probably for overseeing and regulating CPFIS investments and not for investing CPF monies.

Reply
    Martin Lee says 12 years ago

    Dear data,

    Think there is some management involved as he is required to “Analyse local corporate bond issuers” as part of the job scope.

    Reply
nghongjoon says 12 years ago

Hmmmm some curious notes:
(1) I thought the govt has consistently stressed that CPF money is invested in SG govt bonds? If so, what sort of “asset rebalancing” needed? It would be a play on durations only, wouldn’t it?
(2) Even if (1) is true, shouldn’t they need someone with actual experience? Even I fulfill the job requirement and yet I’ve little clue about play on bond durations.

Reply
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