March 2021
22Mar

UK. Emerging passive investing risks a new concern

Investment consultants around the globe are asking their pension fund clients to think carefully about two very real concerns that have emerged in passive investing: ESG-related and concentration risks. Some pension fund clients have heeded their advice, reconsidering whether they should be implementing some kind of ESG tilt to their benchmarks and in other cases, looking to take portions of the allocation to an active manager instead. "We are … having exactly these conversations: How much of this risk are people...

March 22, 2021
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12Mar

Italy. Pension funds seize first Italian green bonds offering

Pension funds and insurance companies snatched up the largest share of green bonds (14.3%) issued by the Italian government among the investors with a long-term investment horizon, the Finance Ministry said in a note. Central banks and government institutions bought the remaining 10% of the total 24.3% of the green bonds allocated to long-term financial investors, it added. Hedge funds secured 3.6%, while fund managers acquired 53.1% of the total green bonds issued, with banks underwriting 18.5%. A total of 530 investors...

March 12, 2021
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11Mar

Pension Trends for Executives in FTSE 350 & SmallCap Companies 2020

By e-reward.co.uk In this research, we outline: How contribution rates vary across the UK’s three main indices. The level of contribution rates paid to the majority of staff in the UK’s largest companies. Some of the approaches that individual companies have followed to reduce the pensions of their new and existing directors. Our data is sourced from over 1,200 annual reports published between September 2017 and 2020 from companies listed on the FTSE 100, mid-250 and SmallCap indices. This data represents...

March 11, 2021
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11Mar

Responsible investing in different cultural contexts – Latin America

By Daniela Laurel Last week, we began with an investigation of how different geographies are engaged in Responsible Investment and Sustainable Finance practice. We kicked off with Europe and North America and today we continue with this series, focusing on Latin America before moving on to Africa and then ending with Asia Pacific. Reiterating an earlier caveat, we cannot generalize how an entire nation or population behaves and simply try our best to spot some cultural trends that stand out...

March 11, 2021
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09Mar

Banks, pensions, and sovereign funds fail to achieve gender balance, finds OMFIF

By Madeleine Taylor Less than 1 per cent of central banks, sovereign funds, public pension funds and commercial banks have achieved gender balance within their workforces, according to a comprehensive survey by Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF). Think tank OMFIF surveyed 540 institutions on gender diversity among senior staff, and found only three that had achieved perfect scores for gender balance among their senior staff, while another 12 were “close to achieving balance”. The three highest ranking institutions were US...

March 9, 2021
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09Mar

Why SFDR is a gamechanger for the ESG landscape

Requirements emanating from the EU's Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR), which are broad in scope, impacting not only asset managers but also other financial market participants including the likes of insurers, pension providers, as well as qualifying venture capital and social entrepreneurship managers. Julian Ide explains the significance of the SFDR In recent years, the demand for ESG products from investors has grown quite rapidly with no signs of slowing down. Investors increasingly want products that better reflect their values and beliefs,...

March 9, 2021
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04Mar

How Covid-19 revealed under-appreciated risks

“Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked,” legendary investor Warren Buffett once said. While few portfolio managers anticipated the sheer speed and force with which the waters receded during Covid-19 – or the swiftness of their return, the impact of the pandemic made clear that potential risks exist that may not have been seriously appreciated before. Read also Covid-19 Is Most Certainly A Retirement Story The coronavirus crisis sparked a “huge realisation of how risks in...

March 4, 2021
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02Mar

South Africa proposes easing infrastructure limits for retirement plans

South Africa's National Treasury wants to make it easier for the country's retirement plans to invest in infrastructure. The Treasury proposed amendments to Regulation 28 of the country's Pension Funds Act, which reduces excessive and concentration risk to assets and limits the extent to which plans can invest in a particular asset or asset class. The proposed changes, which were made in response to calls for increased investment in infrastructure given the low economic growth environment in South Africa, would introduce...

March 2, 2021
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02Mar

Transitioning fixed-income portfolios to low-carbon assets

Asian asset owners, particularly pension funds and insurance companies, are in danger of losing massive amounts of the value of their assets unless they can transition their fixed-income portfolios to low-carbon assets on time to meet the targets set in the Paris climate agreement. Since fixed-income assets make up the bulk of their portfolios, these institutions must be able to transition their portfolios to achieve the target of limiting global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius, preferably to 15°C,...

March 2, 2021
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01Mar

‘Markets Are Wrong’: $2 Trillion of Pension Funds Skip Bond Rout

As interest-rate jitters supercharged a meltdown in the world’s biggest bond market, Sam Sicilia barely blinked. “The markets are wrong” about inflation expectations, said Sicilia, chief investment officer of the A$56 billion ($43 billion) Host-Plus Pty pension fund in Melbourne. “Deflationary forces are bigger. Interest rates are going to stay at effectively zero.” With governments around the globe still adding to trillions of dollars of stimulus to ride out the pandemic, pension fund managers who are trying to discern the long-term...

March 1, 2021
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