Three Core Principles
Atop our foundation of fiduciary duties, we institute three core principles in order to achieve the long term investment returns required by pension funds.
1. Clear investment policies and consistent implementation
- Our investment policies: Quantitative risk control integrated with in-depth bottom-up research.
- Basic investment policies concerning asset allocations and individual asset investment strategies are decided organizationally via committees.
- We monitor investment performance and risk factors to verify that funds are managed according to investment policies.
- We aim to retain and maintain highly competent professionals in our core decision-making positions.
2. Advanced risk management system
- We continue to enhance our compliance to our fiduciary duties.
- An establishment of a full-time performance evaluation team supported by external audits and adhering to IPS*.
- In order to accomplish best execution and checks-and-balances, the trading unit is organized separately from the fund management functions.
- *IPS(Investment Performance Standards)…The standard which investment companies show their investment result for existing or prospective clients, published by The Securities Analysts Association of Japan. We started to adopt IPS in Aug 2000.
3. A wide offering of investment products to meet clients’ needs
- We can combine a wide variety of indexed and active funds to meet our clients’ specifications, including specialized investment funds.
- We provide asset mix strategies that aim to outperform the composite benchmark by analysing the macroeconomic and capital market environments.
- We provide active funds focused mainly on bottom-up research.
- We provide indexed funds which minimize tracking error vs the benchmarks.
The representation based on Article 37 of the Financial Instruments and Exchange Law in Japan
- 1.Company Name:
Mizuho Trust and Banking Co., Ltd.
- 2.Registered Financial Institution Registration Number:
No.34 Director-General of the Kanto Local Finance Bureau of Ministry of Finance
- 3.Memberships:
Japan Securities Dealers Association
The Financial Futures Association of Japan
Japan Securities Investment Advisors Association
- 4.Fees and Costs:
The trust fee is calculated by multiplying the prescribed rate by the trust amount, and is collected from the asset under management. The prescribed rate is determined individually depending on the client's needs, the investment policies and the trust amount, and such rate varies from case to case. If the commission amount is shown before tax, the consumption tax will be added to it.
Transactions of commingled accounts require a prescribed amount of retention money for the trust assets (the amount of retention money varies depending on the investment strategy).
Indirect fees payable include the brokerage commission (the commission on futures transactions or option transactions is included) and its tax equivalent, a custody fee for assets in foreign currencies, a trust fee concerning the beneficiary's right of investment trust and other commissions (these commissions vary depending on the investment strategy or the amount of the assets under management due to differences in the investment situation or custody conditions).
In the case of a commingled account which includes stock lending transactions, the prescribed handling commissions will be received after lending commissions are deducted. In addition, taxes and other public charges associated with stock lending transactions and fees required for trust operations will be deducted from the assets under management or be paid by the trustors.
Also, when investing in Hedge Fund (HF) or Fund of Hedge Funds (FOHF), constitutional expenses of the fund and/or trust fees etc. (the kinds of these commissions are wide-ranging and varied depending on the investment strategy or the amount of the assets under management due to differences in the investment situation or custody conditions) may be charged.
- 5.Risk on Loss of Principal:
Since the investment strategies listed on this site mainly involve investment in financial products (e.g., equities, fixed income, currencies, real estate in investment trusts and commodities etc.), investment in these strategies involves many risks (e.g., fluctuation risk in stock prices, fluctuation risk in bond prices, fluctuation risk in yields, currency risk, credit risk, counterparty risk, country risk, risks of futures trading, fluctuation risk of the real estate market, fluctuation risk of the commodity market, risk of impossibility of collecting of lending securities and risk of re-investment of cash collateral) and thus the relevant value of the principal may be diminished.
In addition, in cases where the investment strategy involves a benchmark, the relevant value of the principal may be diminished because of fluctuations of the index price.
- 6.Other Significant Matters:
FOHF or a fund with a similar investment strategy may require a long period of time from when they receive a cancellation notice to when the investor may obtain their cash. If the amount subject to the cancellation notice accounts for a certain weight of the fund itself (i.e. over 10% of the fund), the cancellation will be limited and the investment will be converted to cash on or after the next payment date. Moreover, the times at which investments can be made in FOHF may be limited.
In general, there are no limitations on investment or cancellation except for the funds following investment strategies mentioned above. However, a certain period of time may be necessary for cancellation in some cases due to unavoidable reasons. If the cancellation amount requested accounts for a considerable percentage of the total amount of the fund, the cancellation may be divided into parts (e.g., in two or three parts) considering the trading volumes on the market. In such case, it may take around a month for completion of cancellation (cancellation will require longer periods of time where it exerts considerable influence on the fund).
