October 2017

20Oct

UN’s $61 Billion Pension Fund Gets New Chief After Shortfalls

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres named Sudhir Rajkumar, a top official at the World Bank Treasury, to head the global body’s $61 billion pension fund in an attempt to reverse three years of below-target returns. Rajkumar will replace Carolyn Boykin, the former chief investment officer of the Maryland State Retirement and Pension System, in January, United Nations spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters Thursday. In December, the UN General Assembly criticized the pension fund’s performance, singling out $3.4 billion in foreign-exchange costs,...

October 20, 2017
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20Oct

US. Government report sounds alarm on retirement crisis

A new government report is sounding the alarm to Congress about a looming retirement crisis if nothing is done to fix existing roadblocks to financial security for many Americans. The Government Accounting Office paper calls on lawmakers to create an independent commission to "comprehensively examine" the U.S. retirement system — including Social Security, workplace retirement plans and individual savings — and make recommendations for improvements. The goals, the report said, should be to: Promote universal access to retirement savings Ensure greater...

October 20, 2017
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20Oct

ESMA Receives Mandate on Fund Performance from European Commission

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has received a mandate from the European Commission (EC) requesting the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) – the European Banking Authority (EBA), the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) and ESMA – to issue recurrent reports on the cost and past performance of the main categories of retail investment, insurance and pension products. The request supports the action, included in the EC’s Mid Term Review of the Capital Markets Union of 8 June 2017, on...

October 20, 2017
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20Oct

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board Has $102.31 Million Position in Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX)

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board lifted its position in Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX) by 7.9% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,754,607 shares of the coffee company’s stock after acquiring an additional 128,675 shares during the quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board owned approximately 0.12% of Starbucks Corporation worth $102,311,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period. Several other hedge...

October 20, 2017
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20Oct

Politics ensnares South Africa’s biggest asset manager

THE rot in South African politics, which has eaten away at state companies, is spreading. This week McKinsey, a consultancy, apologised for the “distress” it had caused the South African people. Political mud had already drowned Bell Pottinger, a British public-relations firm, and forced resignations at KPMG, an auditor. So the shenanigans at the government-owned Public Investment Corporation (PIC), have set off alarm bells. One concern is an apparent attempt to oust Dan Matjila, its boss. A linked worry...

October 20, 2017
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20Oct

US. Your pension fund could be invested in tech

The economics of the tech industry is a chain with a bunch of confusing links. Startups get their money from venture capital firms, and we've talked about how that works and why it heavily influences who becomes key players in tech and what products end up in your hands. But how do venture capital firms get their money? Limited partners, or private corporations; state, county and city entities; and universities. Now, continue to follow me down the chain. Where...

October 20, 2017
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19Oct

The U.K.’s $86 Billion Pension Problem Is About to Solve Itself

For U.K. Plc, the sting of Brexit comes with an unexpected bonus. With no effort on their part, British businesses could see pension deficits that have burdened them for years be practically wiped out if the Bank of England raises interest rates as predicted and they budget for slowing gains in life expectancy, according to estimates of New York-based consultancy Mercer. That will give executives one less thing to worry about as they prepare contingency plans in case Britain can’t...

October 19, 2017
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19Oct

US. New Accounting Rules Could Shift Pension Investment Mix

New accounting rules could prompt companies to accelerate the shift toward investing pension plans in safer, fixed-income assets, according to a recent report by Goldman Sachs Asset Management. The new guidelines focus on how and where on financial statements companies record pension plan expenses. Companies will have to separate employee service costs from other aspects of pension and postretirement benefit costs, such as expected return on plan assets and interest costs on the obligation. Businesses will be allowed to capitalize...

October 19, 2017
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19Oct

Caisse aims to cut portfolio’s carbon footprint 25% by 2025

The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec is setting bold targets to shelter its portfolio against the impact of climate change. The country's second-largest pension fund is seeking more profitable investment opportunities and means to avoid assets it forecasts will be left behind in a global marketplace being reshaped by an increasingly low-carbon world economy. The move comes as institutional investors around the world are reassessing climate risks and other so-called environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) factors in...

October 19, 2017
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19Oct

UK. New products needed to defuse pensions time bomb, FCA says

The investment industry has been told by the FCA that it has a growing role in addressing the public policy challenge of inadequate retirement saving levels. FCA chief executive Andrew Bailey said the government and regulators are “showing so much more interest” in the investment industry in part bacuase of recent changes to the retirement market. He said these changes had placed a greater responsibility on individuals to arrange their own long-term savings provision, resulting in investment managers being more directly...

October 19, 2017
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