On the plane to a family Thanksgiving a nice seatmate asked what kind of work I do (as she watched me struggle with a spreadsheet). I brightly told her I am an economics professor working to expand pensions to solve the retirement crises. She looked at me blankly and said, "I'm Canadian, we don't have these problems. That stopped me short. Really? Canada? Has the friendly nation to the north figured it out? Canada has been described, in jest of course,...
CPPIB holds $6.1m in investments in Geo Group, a firm that runs US detention facilities under Trump’s immigration crackdown A controversial investment by one of Canada’s biggest pension funds in a company which operates private prisons in the United States is larger than initially thought, recent securities filings have revealed. The Guardian and Documented reported last month that the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) – which manages $366.6bn in pension funds on behalf of some 20 million Canadian retirees –...
OTTAWA -- "We expect the CPPIB, like other Crown corporations, to live up to the highest standards of ethics and behaviour and that is, in fact, exactly what it is doing." -- Finance Minister Bill Morneau during question period Monday in the House of Commons. The New Democrats challenged Morneau this week to weigh in on new ethical questions surrounding the investment portfolio of the arms-length Canada Pension Plan Investment Board -- which manages hundreds of billions of dollars worth...
The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board holds $5.9m of stock in two companies profiting from Trump’s ‘zero-tolerance’ Mexico border policy Canadian politicians have expressed alarm that one of Canada’s biggest pension investment funds has increased holdings in two US private companies that run American prisons and incarcerate the majority of detained immigrants. The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), which manages $366.6bn in pension funds on behalf of some 20 million Canadian retirees, holds US$5.9m of stock in Geo Group and...
CPPIB plans to increase funding across country as it eyes long-term market opportunities from growing middle-income group, aging population By 2025, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board plans to have 20 percent of its estimated C$800 billion ($612 billion) assets invested in the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, said Mark Machin, president and CEO of CPPIB. "It's a sensible thing to increase our supply to this market. We are building expertise, and we think valuation is not perfect in this...
Rising bond yields and a continuing strong U.S. equity market helped boost the health of Canadian defined benefit pension plans to the highest level ever recorded, according to the latest quarterly Median Solvency Ratio from Aon, a leading global professional services firm providing a broad range of risk, retirement and health solutions. Quotes: “Aon has been measuring median solvency for the better part of two decades now, and we have never seen quarterly levels this high,” said William da Silva, Senior...
As many as one million Ontarians who work for registered charities and non-profit organizations will be eligible to join the provincial government pension plan under an agreement being announced Monday. The Ontario Nonprofit Network, which advocates on behalf of the province’s 58,000 charities and non-profits, is recommending OPTrust as the sector’s first defined-benefit pension provider. The new OPTrust Select plan will be available to every registered charity and non-profit in Ontario, whether it has one employee or hundreds, said the network’s...
First Canadian dollar fixed income issuance by a major bank in Canada testing blockchain technology TORONTO, Aug. 15, 2018 /CNW/ - BMO Capital Markets today announced that it has successfully launched a pilot fixed income issuance transaction, mirrored on a blockchain platform alongside leading pension fund investor Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (Ontario Teachers'). The transaction included Bank of Montreal as the issuer and Ontario Teachers' as the buyer of a CDN$250MM 1-year floating rate Deposit Note, making it the first Canadian...
Morneau Shepell (TSX: MSI) has released the results of its Performance Universe of Pension Managers' Pooled Funds for the second quarter of 2018. According to the report, in the second quarter of 2018, diversified pooled fund managers posted a median return of 2.9 per cent before management fees. "Most stock markets delivered excellent results in the second quarter, generating positive pension fund returns. Canadian and U.S. equities did particularly well, with returns of 6.8 per cent for the S&P/TSX and 5.6...
By Bonnie-Jeanne MacDonald (Ryerson University - The National Institute of Aging (NIA)) Income security in later life (age 85) is more important now than ever. More attention needs to be paid to how Canadians can best draw down their savings after retirement and secure adequate income for advanced ages. Retiring Canadians need innovative solutions – ones that add definitive value but place no new pressures on the Canadian public purse. I propose a government-led solution: Canada’s Living Income For the...
