October 2021

UK pension schemes are funding more emissions than the entire UK’s carbon footprint

The analysis suggests pension schemes invest an estimated £112 billion in fossil fuels. That means for every £1,000 invested around £60 supports the fossil fuel industry. Richard Curtis, Co-Founder at Make My Money Matter, commented: “While we’ve seen green shoots of progress with voluntary net zero commitments, £2 trillion remains in schemes which have failed to act, undermining the UK government’s own net zero targets.” Last week, new research found that almost 70% of leading UK schemes have not made robust net...

South Korean pension fund to invest in Bitcoin ETF: Report

South Korea’s public pension fund, the Korean Teachers’ Credit Union (KTCU), is reportedly looking to gain exposure to Bitcoin (BTC) via a crypto exchange-traded fund (ETF). Read also UK. PensionBee Partners with Plaid to Leverage Open Banking KTCU, one of the largest institutional investors in South Korea, is considering investing in a pure Bitcoin ETF or Bitcoin-linked ETFs in the first half of 2022, local news agency The Korea Economic Daily reported Monday. Read also US Public Pension Fund Invests In Bitcoin...

UK. Pension funds invest £128 billion in fossil fuel businesses, according to new information.

Pension funds should use their huge financial power to help the fight against climate change, a Cabinet minister will say tomorrow. In a speech to the Policy Exchange think tank, Work and Pensions Secretary Thérèse Coffey is to argue the multi-trillion pound retirement savings across the world can become a global “superpower” in the battle for a greener planet. Her address will coincide with the Government setting out plans to align UK pension rules with the 2015 Paris Accord goal to...

Dutch pension giant spurns fossil fuels as funds shift before COP26

Dutch pension fund ABP will divest 15 billion euros ($17.5 billion) of investments in fossil fuel producers by 2023, it said on Tuesday, as many of the world's biggest investors set out new climate policies ahead of next week's COP26 summit. Read also UK pension schemes are funding more emissions than the entire UK’s carbon footprint With policymakers gearing up for the talks aimed at accelerating action on global warming, financial firms from across the world are announcing new steps to...

Canada. LifeWorks releases the results of its Performance Universe of Pension Managers’ Pooled Funds

LifeWorks (TSX: LWRK) has released the results of its Performance Universe of Pension Managers’ Pooled Funds for the third quarter of 2021. Read also UK. FCA creates LTAF, a new investment fund for pension schemes and specialized investors According to the report, in the third quarter of 2021, diversified pooled fund managers posted a median return of 0.7 per cent before management fees and 8.0 per cent since the beginning of the year. Read also Pandemic Offers This Silver Lining For Retirement...

UK. FCA creates LTAF, a new investment fund for pension schemes and specialized investors

Sophisticated investors and pension funds are among those who will have access to new types of investment opportunities following changes made by the FCA. The FCA has confirmed that it will be taking forward proposals to create a new type of open-ended authorised investment fund which will help support investment in assets like infrastructure and private equity. Investment in these assets has the potential to generate better returns for investors, including those saving for retirement in defined contribution (DC) pension...

The Future of Pension Management: Integrating Design, Governance, and Investing

By Keith P. Ambachtsheer The Future of Pension Management offers a progress report from the field, using actual case studies from around the world. In the mid-70s, Peter Drucker predicted that demographic dynamics would eventually turn pensions into a major societal issue; in 2007, author Keith Ambachsheer's book Pension Revolution laid out the ways in which Drucker's predictions had come to pass. This book provides a fresh look at the situation on the ground, and details the encouraging changes that...

US Public Pension Fund Invests In Bitcoin For The First Time

NYDIG facilitated the purchase, representing "a watershed moment for bitcoin and its place in public pensions," its global head said. A U.S. public pension fund has invested in bitcoin for the first time. The Houston Firefighters' Relief and Retirement Fund acquired an undisclosed amount of BTC through institutional bitcoin services provider NYDIG. The investment "represents a watershed moment for bitcoin and its place in public pensions," the global head of asset management at NYDIG said. Read also US. Allianz, Calpers...

How Green is Your Pension?

Some of the UK's biggest businesses have yet to sign up to any net zero commitments, but there are signs of changes afoot Pension schemes are huge, and hugely influential, beasts. Scheme membership has widened massively over recent years as a result of auto-enrolment, with almost eight in 10 UK employees now enrolled in a workplace pension. Clearly, then, they play a critical role in the country’s investment landscape. According to the latest government data, private sector pension funds had a...

US. Allianz, Calpers to Cut Portfolio Emissions by Up to 30% by 2025

By 2025, 29 of the world’s biggest pension funds and investment firms, including Allianz SE and the  California Public Employees’ Retirement System, intend to have cut the emissions of their portfolio holdings by at least 25%. The targets, which cover publicly-traded equities, corporate bonds and real estate portfolios, were announced in a statement Wednesday by the Net Zero Asset Owner Alliance, which was convened by the United Nations. Other firms that are part of the group and have also made such  a commitment include  Aviva Plc and Swiss Re AG. Eliminating emissions generated from their holdings has...