Watson Wyatt has quietly exited the business of strategic consulting to fund management companies. The worldwide move was decided in the past few weeks. Its leading practitioner in Asia, Anthony Creighton, has recently left the firm and will join Credit Suisse Asset Management in Hong Kong.
Creighton says the firm did have the proper Chinese walls in place to ensure no conflict of interest. Nonetheless given the litigious mood in the United States and the United Kingdom toward fund management companies, and the zeal of regulators such as New York Attorney General Elliot Spitzer, the consultancy decided the relatively small business of advising fund managers wasn't worth being hauled over the coals in...
