September 2026
10Sep

AIIB eyes new platform to pool private capital for Asia’s US$1.7tr infrastructure needs

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is developing a new platform to pool capital from institutional investors, aiming to roughly quadruple the private capital it mobilises for infrastructure projects across Asia, according to a senior officer. The mechanism will allow insurers, pension funds, and other institutional investors to co-invest in infrastructure debt alongside the bank across its 111 member countries on a programmatic basis, rather than negotiating deal by deal. Kim-See Lim, AIIB’s chief investment officer, described the initiative as being...

September 10, 2026
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09Sep

US. Explaining the Rise in Alternative Investments in Public Pension Plans

In recent decades, public pension plans in the United States have changed how they take on risk. At the turn of the century, their risky investments were primarily in public equities, whereas alternative assets – like private equity, real estate, and hedge funds – accounted for just 14 percent of all risky investments. By 2021, the share of risky assets in alternatives had grown to 39 percent. Equally interesting, the adoption of alternatives has varied enormously across plans. What...

September 9, 2026
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09Sep

How Europe can turn its investment gap into an opportunity

Past choices are visible in today’s balance sheets Household balance sheets reflect decades of saving and investment decisions, asset-price movements and institutional arrangements. In 2025, eurozone households held almost €220,000 in financial assets per household, including €69,000 in deposits, €56,000 in insurance and pension entitlements, €46,000 in unlisted equity and €43,000 in market-based assets. Average financial liabilities stood at €53,000. The level and composition of wealth differ markedly across countries. These differences reflect not only household investment choices, but also...

September 9, 2026
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04Sep

Global pension asset allocations and debt markets

By Ding Ding, Xiang Fang, Bryan Hardy & Karen K. Lewis The pension sector is an important investor group in global financial markets and a key holder of government and corporate debt. This article examines the evolution of pension fund asset allocations around the globe and documents two important structural changes. First, pension investors have shifted portfolio share allocations away from fixed income securities. This trend is robust across Defined Contribution (DC) and Defined Benefit (DB) programs as well as...

September 4, 2026
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04Sep

UK. How forestry scam drained pensions to buy ‘flash cars’

Staff at Ethical Forestry always knew when their bosses were around. Even though the business was on the top floor of a Bournemouth office block there was no mistaking their arrival. You could hear one of their "top of the range, flash cars" roaring into the parking area three storeys below, according to former staff member Susan Cox. And "flash cars" they had a plenty - between them, company founder Matthew Pickard and fellow directors Stephen Greenaway and Paul Laver bought at...

September 4, 2026
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03Sep

UK. Greater pension risk pooling could boost productive investment and saver return

The greater use of collective pension vehicles, including collective defined contribution (CDC) schemes and pension superfunds, could improve saver outcomes and unlock more long-term productive investment in the UK, New Capital Consensus (NCC) has argued. In its new report, Redistributing the Risk Burden, the think tank said that the systematic transfer of investment risk from institutions to individuals over the past 25 years has contributed to more short-term and risk-averse investment, while leaving savers bearing greater responsibility without sufficient support. According to...

September 3, 2026
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02Sep

Overseas Stocks Drive Double-Digit Returns for State Plans Like Louisiana and New York

For many state pensions that sought growth outside the U.S., the bet is paying off. Strong gains in non-U.S. and emerging market equities have helped propel several public plans like the Louisiana State Employees’ Retirement System and New York State Common Retirement Fund to double-digit returns for their 2026 fiscal years (18.4 percent and 11.9 percent, respectively). Louisiana State chief investment officer Bobby Beale attributed much of the $18.7 billion plan’s strong return to “broad strength in equities.” While domestic equities...

September 2, 2026
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02Sep

Ghana. Look beyond government securities – GVCA tells pension funds

Ghana’s private capital ecosystem is attracting growing interest as institutional investors explore opportunities beyond traditional investment instruments and seek to channel more capital into the productive sectors of the economy. The development is prompting renewed engagement between pension funds, private equity firms, venture capital managers and other players in the markets and investment industry, with stakeholders highlighting the potential of private capital to support growth-stage businesses, create salaried jobs and deepen economic growth. The discussions formed part of a Matchmaking Session...

September 2, 2026
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August 2026
31Aug

ECB warning of AI bubble: Contagion and concentration risk spreads

Warnings of a potential AI bubble have not exactly been thin on the ground lately. All the same, a blog post on August 17 by four senior economists at the European Central Bank (ECB) garnered extra attention, thanks to its source and prognosis. “Extremely optimistic valuations raise questions: do today’s stock market prices reflect a rational bet on the transformative technology?” the blog post notes, adding that a replay of the turn-of-the-century dotcom bubble and bust is far more likely. Concentration...

August 31, 2026
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28Aug

Optimal Investment for Retirement with Intergenerational Benchmarking

By Luke Servat & Antoon Pelsser Countries have demonstrated a tendency to switch their second pillar toward defined contribution plans, increasing the market-sensitivity of pensions. This can lead to large differences across generations within a pension fund, as otherwise similar cohorts may experience different market conditions during accumulation. In this paper, we investigate how each cohort should invest if the goal is to reduce the likelihood of unlucky generations, in the presence of equity, interest-rate and annuity-conversion risk. We do...

August 28, 2026
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