January 2024

Investors ‘flying blind’ into legal risk of climate change, Oxford researchers warn

As investors assess climate-related financial risk, they are "flying blind" to the risk of climate lawsuits that could hit companies with trillions in damages, according to a research report from Oxford Sustainable Law Programme published Jan. 11 in Science. The Oxford Sustainable Law Programme is a joint initiative of the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment and the Faculty of Law at the University of Oxford, England. Current practices used by investors to assess the financial risk of climate change...

October 2023

Insights for helping employees build enduring financial wellness

By Always Designing for People Improving long-term financial wellness is a clear priority for many employees, according to a recent survey by Retirement Insights, LLC. Seventy-eight percent of survey respondents said they prefer saving for the future over spending on current needs. Yet, many of them find some pieces of the retirement planning puzzle to be unclear and would like financial education from their employer to help them with complicated calculations and decisions. You can fulfill this unmet need and make...

September 2023

How Africa’s pension funds are financing the continent’s infrastructure gap

African countries have huge infrastructure needs, and governments need private investment to help meet them, particularly considering increasing climate impacts and green development agendas. Local pension funds and other institutional investors are a significant but untapped source of finance. Two examples of pension fund consortiums, in Kenya and South Africa, offer promising models for engaging Africa’s institutional investors in closing the infrastructure financing gap and meet the continent’s growing infrastructure development needs. In just three years, these two consortiums have...

June 2023

ESG resolution round-up: US pension giants split on climate proposal at Japanese bank

Big US public pension funds are divided on the merits of a climate proposal filed at Mizuho Financial Group which calls on the Japanese “mega-bank” to issue and disclose a transition plan to align its lending and investments with the Paris Agreement.     Californian giants CalPERS and CalSTRS have pre-disclosed that they will vote against the resolution on Friday, despite supporting a similar request at the bank in 2020. But The Office of the New York City Comptroller, which oversees...

Finnish pension giant invests €500m in newly launched Europe climate-action ETF

Finnish pension giant Ilmarinen Mutual Pension Insurance has invested more than €500m in Amundi’s new MSCI Europe Climate Action Ucits ETF. The fund tracks an index designed to identify European companies assessed as the top 50% sector leaders in terms of their positioning and actions relative to the climate transition. Notably, the ETF gives investors an alternative to ESG and Climate ETFs linked to the Paris-aligned benchmark (PAB) and EU Climate Transition benchmark. The index methodology tracks metrics including carbon intensity, science-based...

September 2022

Demographic change impacting asset allocation

Aging populations and advances in technology influencing investment strategies Changing demographics are having a significant impact on asset allocation, latest research by BNP Paribas Asset Management (BNPP AM) shows. The asset manager's survey - conducted in association with Coalition Greenwich - questioned 135 institutional and intermediary investors across Europe, Asia and the US. The findings revealed just under four-fifths (78%) of European investors believe that changing demographics factors had already had an impact on asset allocation, along with 83% of Asian investors....

August 2022

Renewable energy’s charm still growing for investors

Amid a just-passed U.S. climate bill unleashing record investment in domestic clean energy, energy transition efforts in the U.K. and Europe well underway and energy security concerns raised by the Ukraine war, institutional investors seem poised for the next level of investing in renewables. "Over the last year alone, we've witnessed the highest levels of interest in renewables we've ever seen from institutional investors," said Matt Setchell, co-head of Octopus Energy Generation's fund management team in London. Part of Octopus...

December 2021

US. With Pandemic Lessons Learned, Institutional Investors Gear Up for 2022

Recently, the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. (MassMutual) announced it had finalized the consolidation of Barings’ mutual funds with MassMutual funds onto the MassMutual investments platform. To mark the occasion, PLANSPONSOR sat down with Keith McDonagh, the head of MassMutual’s institutional solutions business, to talk about this and other developments, including the state of competition in the institutional services space and the challenges he is hearing about from brokers, consultants and their institutional investor clients. At a high level, McDonagh...

Record returns notched in pandemic head list

A global pandemic in its second year, historically strong equity markets and a new occupant in the White House dominated headlines during the past year, while the return of inflation and regulatory and legislative changes were also among Pensions & Investments' top 10 stories of 2021. The top story this year — chosen by P&I's editors — is the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. As it lagged on, a historic market recovery spurred in part by actions taken to...

Chinese province offers $31,000 baby loans to counter shrinking population

A Chinese province with one of the fastest-shrinking populations is rolling out special loans to encourage couples to marry and have babies, as the rapidly-aging country tries to reverse a slump in births. Jilin province in northeast China will support banks to provide up to 200,000 yuan ($31,400) of “marriage and birth consumer loans” to married couples, according to an official blueprint on policies to promote population growth. There were no details on how the government would offer support, but the...