October 2025

International Pension Plan Survey 2025

By WTW Employers expand plan eligibility and enhance inclusivity to become more responsive to employee needs. International Pension Plans (IPPs) and International Savings Plans (ISPs) were originally used by multinational employers to provide retirement or savings benefits to employees who may not be eligible for home country retirement plans or where local (host) solutions are unavailable or unsuitable. Today, they have evolved beyond their traditional expatriate focus to include a wider range of employees including local employees, especially in regions...

European pension providers back calls for governments to stop deforestation

Institutional investors, including European pension providers, have urged global governments to adopt strong policies to halt and reverse deforestation and forest degradation by 2030 and to prevent further loss of natural ecosystems. The Belém Investor Statement on Rainforests highlighted investor concerns about the financial risks posed by tropical deforestation and nature loss, warning that exposure to commodities produced on deforested land creates material vulnerabilities across global investment and lending portfolios. It also said that the degradation of forests threatens the ecosystem...

June 2025

PensionsEurope’s Position Paper on the European Commission’s Omnibus Simplification Proposal

By Pension Europe PensionsEurope welcomes the European Commission (EC) initiative which aims to align crucial EU legislation concerning Sustainable Finance. PensionsEurope firmly believes that the competitiveness of the EU economy is vital, it is possible to reduce the administrative burden without undermining the EU's policy objectives regarding the green transition. However, any simplification should be carefully balanced to ensure that material sustainability information on risks, opportunities, and impacts-critical to informed investor decision-making-is preserved. Accordingly, the Omnibus package should aim to streamline...

May 2025

U.S. money managers put on notice by $65 billion Dutch investor

Dutch pension fund PME is issuing a blanket warning to U.S. money managers, amid concerns America’s investment industry is caving in to pressure from the Trump administration to abandon basic principles of stewardship. They “aren’t condemning what Trump is doing and how he is operating and how he is handling issues like climate change and demolishing the judiciary,” Daan Spaargaren, senior strategist for responsible investing, said in an interview. “We are worried about that.” Read also: Hong Kong regulator prods pension...

Sustainability reporting on pension schemes the path forward

In an era marked by growing awareness of environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations, sustainability reporting has emerged as a crucial aspect for organisations, investors and stakeholders. For pension schemes, particularly, integrating sustainability into their reporting frameworks is more than just a regulatory requirement; it’s an ethical imperative that aligns with the long-term nature of their commitments to retirees and the society. Read the complete book here

The Singular Role of Public Pension Funds in Corporate Governance

By Jill E. Fisch & Jeff Schwartz With more than $5 trillion in assets, public pension funds are significant players in financial markets. Like private asset managers, public pension fund managers are typically expected to exercise their discretion over investing and engagement to serve the interests of the funds’ beneficiaries exclusively, a model that we term “beneficiary primacy.” To this end, beneficiary primacy imposes fiduciary duties on fund managers to maximize the economic value of the fund. We argue that...

December 2024

The Economics of Net Zero Banking

By Adair Morse & Parinitha R. Sastry Banks have voluntarily committed to align their lending portfolios with a net zero path toward a decarbonized economy. In this review, we explore the economic channels for why portfolio decarbonization might be consistent with lender profit maximization. We frame the question by positing that net zero lending may create differential value through the channels of risk and returns, where return topics span profit margins and lending book growth arguments. We then use the lens of...

October 2024

Who Owns the City? Pension Fund Capitalism and the Parkdale Rent Strike

By Jamie Shilton Canadian public pension funds play an increasingly significant role as institutional investors, including in the domestic residential property market. Some scholars have suggested that pension fund investments of this kind result in a form of public ownership, sometimes characterized as “pension fund socialism.” However, the actual character of pension fund investment in Canada is much more akin to a financialized pension fund capitalism, with public pension funds adopting investment strategies consistent with private financial market actors. In...

Mercer CFA Institute Global Pension Index 2024

By Mercer, CFA Institute, Monash Business School The Mercer CFA Institute Global Pension Index benchmarks 48 retirement income systems around the world, highlighting challenges and opportunities within each. Vietnam was added to the mix this year. We used updated data from the OECD and other international agencies and added some new questions to the integrity sub-index. The index is made up of three sub-indices, namely adequacy, sustainability and integrity, to measure each retirement income system against more than 50 indicators. This...

The Sustainable Investment Report 2024

By Dan Wills We are delighted to present the latest in our IFA Annual Report Series; The Sustainable Investment Report 2024. There are many facets of sustainability and companies are having to change their processes and behaviours to work towards our sustainable future. Researched and written by leading Compliance Consultant Tony Catt, this report is intended to provide a snapshot of the current situation and thinking from across the industry, in relation to the matter of sustainability in investment solutions. Get the report...