ASB to wind up nine funds
ASB has confirmed it will wind up nine of its funds on September 30 after indicating in April that such plans were in the offing.The bank didn't provide the exact reason behind the decision, merely saying it is part of its regular assessment of investment products where it decided some products may no longer be best meeting the customers' needs and investment goals.The nine funds are NZ Mortgage Income Fund, ASB Residential Mortgage Trust, ASB Money Market Trust, ASB Diversified Income Trust, ASB NZ Fixed Interest Trust, ASB World Fixed Interest Trust, ASB NZ Shares Trust, ASB World Shares Trust and ASB Emerging Markets Trust.ASB has given investors the option of making switches and withdrawals as usual until September 15, and will get in touch with investors in October about how they would like their investments to be paid.As of October 31, 2009, eight of the funds (the exception is NZ Mortgage Income Fund) had total assets of around NZ$350 million. NZ Mortgage Income Fund had assets of NZ$211 million as of March 31, 2010. All the funds hold investments in entities directly or indirectly managed by ASB Group Investments.