May 2021
28May

UK pension asset owners join Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance

Three UK pension asset owners have signed up to the UN-convened Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance. As reported by our sister publication, European Pensions, Phoenix Group, Legal & General (L&G) and Rothesay all joined alongside Germany’s largest pension fund under public law, Bayerische Versorgungskammer (BVK), and Asia- and Africa-focused insurance group, Prudential plc. The five new signatories have added a combined USD 900bn AUM to the alliance, meaning it now consists of 42 assets owners managing a combined USD 6.6trn of assets. By...

May 28, 2021
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April 2021
29Apr

Rethinking Retirement Savings

By Jason Fernandes, Janelle Orsi In this Commentary, we demonstrate that the rules governing retirement savings have been funneling tens of trillions of dollars into a narrow class of return-maximizing investments, including industries that have been driving inequality and widespread ecological destruction. The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), along with its state law analogs, directs trustees to seek the highest risk-adjusted return on plan assets, regardless of the consequences to workers, their communities, and the planet. American...

April 29, 2021
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February 2021
19Feb

Global Pension Transparency Benchmark

By top1000funds.com and CME The Global Pension Transparency Benchmark is a world first global standard for pension disclosure, bringing a focus to transparency in a bid to improve pension outcomes for members. The GPTB ranks 15 countries on public disclosures of key value generation elements for the five largest pension fund organisations within each country. The GPTB focuses on the transparency and quality of public disclosures with quality relating to the completeness, clarity, information value and comparability of disclosures. The overall country...

February 19, 2021
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18Feb

The Global Pension Transparency Benchmark launches in a bid to improve pension outcomes for members

The Global Pension Transparency Benchmark has revealed the opportunity for improvement in pension fund disclosure transparency around the globe. Read also Ten degrees of sustainability The Global Pension Transparency Benchmark is a world first global benchmark measuring transparency of pension disclosure, bringing a focus to transparency in a bid to improve pension outcomes for members. Read also ESG-Conscious Money Managers Are Pension Funds’ Top Consideration The GPTB ranks 15 countries on public disclosures of key value generation elements for the five largest pension...

February 18, 2021
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18Feb

Ten degrees of sustainability

By Tanya Broadfield In November, when COP26 takes place in Glasgow, the eyes of the world will be looking at what progress the UK has made towards delivering sustainability targets to support net zero and the tackling of climate change. Savills has identified 10 drivers of change we can expect to hear more about this year. 1. TCFD and climate transparency A raft of sustainability disclosure requirements is coming and The Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) is leading the way. Since January,...

February 18, 2021
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17Feb

ESG-Conscious Money Managers Are Pension Funds’ Top Consideration

Pension funds and insurers are now looking for more socially responsible money managers. According to a recent global poll conducted by Bfinance, over 60% of pension funds and insurers said they were unlikely to hire an equity manager who is not a signatory of the Principles for Responsible Investment, the world’s biggest industry body for sustainable investing, Bloomberg reports. The survey also showed that about a third of respondents wouldn’t appoint a hedge fund manager that lacked gender or ethnic diversity...

February 17, 2021
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16Feb

€573bn Dutch pension group appoints first female CEO

Dutch pension group APG has appointed Annette Mosman as chief executive officer, the firm has announced. Mosman will assume the role on 1 March 2021 succeeding Gerard van Olphen, who will be stepping down in April of this year for personal reasons. Mosman is a member of the board of directors and has been chief finance and risk officer since February 2018. She will also be the firm’s first female CEO. Pieter Jongstra, chairman of the supervisory board, said: ‘For the pension...

February 16, 2021
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16Feb

​EC’s sustainable governance play: Asset owners wary of potential snags

The idea of drawing up EU rules to ensure companies embed sustainability into the way they operate has met with steady applause from pensions and asset management industry representatives – as well as warnings of potential unintended consequences. Read also Spain Counts on Citizens to Buy Into Revolution for Pensions Questions put out by the European Commission in its consultation on an initiative on sustainable corporate governance – which closed in early February – centred around topics such as directors’ duty...

February 16, 2021
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November 2019

14Nov

Australia. A 24-Year-Old Is Suing Pension Fund for Not Being Green Enough

Mark McVeigh, a 24-year-old environmental scientist from Australia, won’t be able to access his retirement savings until 2055. But, concerned about what the world may look like then, he’s taking action now, suing his A$57 billion ($39 billion) pension fund for not adequately disclosing or assessing the impact of climate change on its investments. The Federal Court battle is shaping up to be a unique test case. Are pension funds in breach of their fiduciary duties by failing to...

November 14, 2019
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04Nov

UK. NHS misses deadline for staff pension statements

The NHS missed its three-month deadline for issuing pension statements to more than 4,000 staff this year as the service struggles to cope with requests from doctors worried about tax bills. Between January and September, the NHS pension scheme received 15,200 requests from hospital consultants for an annual allowance statement, which is needed to assess their tax position. But one in four of those requests — or 3,824 — were not completed within the target timeframe, according to a...

November 4, 2019
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