Ratings on fund managers urged

Ratings on fund managers urged

NUSA DUA, Bali (JP): Fund managers must be rated regularly to
encourage domestic investors, particularly institutions, to
invest more in the capital market, an analyst said here
yesterday.

"Ratings are a good way to make our local investors more
familiar with the services of fund managers," said Yannes
Naibaho, the president of PT UsahaBersama Sekuritas, one of the
country's 60 fund managers.

He said many local investors -- particularly pension funds and
insurance firms -- still did not understand the benefits of using
fund managers. And they needed independent assessments on the
reliability and capability of fund managers.

Speaking to The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of a seminar on
local investors' role in the capital market, he said performance
ratings would encourage fund managers to improve their
professionalism and, in turn, encourage institutional investors
to use their services.

Ratings can be based on the amount of income fund managers
generate on their managed funds, and on the volume of funds they
manage in a year, Naibaho said.

He said ratings should be made by an independent agency.

"To maintain objectivity on ratings, we must make sure that
they are made by an independent agency and not by a government
institution," he said.

The other participants at the seminar, organized by the
Association of Indonesian Listed Companies, shared Naibaho's view
that ratings would help institutional investors to choose fund
managers.

Glenn M.S. Yusuf, the president of PT Danareksa Securities,
said most pension funds and insurance companies still relied on
their own staff to handle their capital market investments.

B. Munir Sjamsoeddin, the president of PT Reasuransi Umum
Indonesia, admitted that many institutional investors were
unaware of the benefits of fund managers. (bnt)