May 2024
28May

Esade report: Moving from awareness to action in gender lens investing

The Esade Center for Social Impact (ECSI) has published its Gender Strategies in Investing study to better understand how European investors can move from awareness to action in gender lens investing (GLI) by striking a more equitable balance in their own teams as well as by applying a gender lens to their portfolio investments. The study, which was launched at a webinar hosted by two of its co-authors, Leonora Buckland, senior researcher at ECSI and Lisa Hehenberger, associate professor at Esade Business...

May 28, 2024
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08May

Why Europe’s largest investors are building their defense war chests

As war rages on Europe’s doorstep and authorities across the region explicitly encourage institutional investors to support national security, some European pension funds are changing their investment policies to put more money to work in the defense industry. Last month, Danish pension funds told Pensions & Investments that the war in Ukraine had led to a rethink of allocations to defense assets. Some had already been investing — carefully and always with a responsible investment framework in mind — in defense and aerospace...

May 8, 2024
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April 2024
26Apr

Social security developments and trends – Europe 2024

By International Social Security Association Europe has historically been home to some of the most advanced social security systems in the world. Many countries in the region provide comprehensive, adequate protection against common life cycle and labour market risks for the vast majority of the population. Widespread protection of individuals over the life course enables social security systems to play a key role in ensuring economic and social stability in the face of large-scale shocks. Despite these broad protections, notable...

April 26, 2024
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March 2024
08Mar

Gender Pension Gap in EU Countries: A Between-Group Inequality Approach

By Antonio Abatemarco, Elena Lagomarsino & Maria Russolillo  Pension entitlements are influenced by individual career paths and labor market conditions, which often result in gender-based disparities. Women face several challenges during their working lives, such as late entry into the labor market, the gender pay gap, discontinuous working careers, and early retirement due to family caregiving, which lead to lower pension incomes. This paper investigates the gender pension gap in nine European Union countries from 2004 to 2020. Our study...

March 8, 2024
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January 2024
17Jan

European pension funds turn to co-filing at Shell to up climate credibility

Major European pension funds are among a record number of investors who have agreed to co-file a shareholder resolution at Shell with NGO Follow This in a bid to get the oil and gas major to set tougher emission reduction targets. The biggest support Follow This received previously was co-filing from 17 investors for a shareholder resolution at TotalEnergies’ annual general meeting last year, helping it secure 30% of votes. The group of co-filers for this year’s Shell resolution is bigger and...

January 17, 2024
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December 2023
21Dec

The best and worst countries for pensions and retirement in Europe

Moving to another country to eventually retire requires a lot of careful research and planning, taking into account social security, health care, and finances. U.S. consultancy Mercer issues a closely-watched annual report that analyzes 47 different retirement income systems around the world — with European nations often coming out on top. In fact, three countries have dominated the Mercer CFA Institute’s global index since 2021. Namely, Iceland (a 84.6 average), the Netherlands (a 84.4 average) and Denmark (a 81.8 average) have...

December 21, 2023
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November 2023
17Nov

Unionization of Retired Workers in Europe

By Vinzenz Pyka & Claus Schnabel We shed light on an understudied group: retirees in unions. Using representative individual-level data of 19 European countries, we find that the share of retirees in unions and the union density of retirees increased between 2008 and 2020. Econometric analyses indicate that on average retired workers' probability of union membership is 17 percentage points lower than that of active workers. This finding is consistent with social custom models and cost-benefit considerations. We further find that...

November 17, 2023
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03Nov

2022 Future Focus Survey: ESG and sustainable investing trends in Europe

By J.P. Morgan Asset Management   While allocations to sustainable investing strategies continue to grow, the average allocation across Europe is relatively low, at 23%. Even in Finland, which tops the table, the average allocation is only 33%. It is clear that even in the region where sustainable investing is most popular, broad ESG adoption is still at the early part of its journey.* Interestingly, there is far more divergence among the investors within countries than between them. Therefore, we urge investors to focus on the...

November 3, 2023
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October 2023
23Oct

Europe’s defined contribution market poised for a boom

The defined contribution market in Europe is poised for significant growth, fueled by government reforms, growing importance of ESG for participants and increasing acceptance by stakeholders for DC to serve as a sustainable retirement solution. Figures released in June by the European Central Bank showed defined contribution plans making up 24.7% of retirement assets, at €646 billion ($680 billion). Cerulli Associates in 2022 projected compound annual growth rate of 9.6% for defined contribution in Europe over the next five years,...

October 23, 2023
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10Oct

EIOPA lays down strategic priorities for 2024/26 with focus on managing uncertainty

The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) has outlined its strategic priorities for the period 2024-2026, highlighting its plans to “focus on managing the uncertainty in times of transformation so that the insurance and pensions sectors can continue to deliver value to policyholders and beneficiaries.” In a statement, the EIOPA laid down six strategic priorities on which to focus, which include sustainable finance, digital transformation, supervision, policy, risks to financial sustainability and governance. Under sustainable finance, the Authority stated it...

October 10, 2023
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