July 2024
05Jul

Global Public Pensions 2023

By OMFIF  The Global Public Pensions 2023 report explores how public pension and sovereign funds are building optimal investment strategies to address the uncertain economic environment and factor sustainability into their portfolios. The report draws on surveys, discussions, and written contributions from 22 global public funds across the world with combined assets under management of $4.3tn. These include the likes of Singapore’s GIC, Canada’s CDPQ, Australia’s Future Fund and India’s National Infrastructure Investment Fund. It also analyses the annual reports...

July 5, 2024
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05Jul

Pensions for Migrants – Leveraging the Renda Success

By Arun Muralidhar, Leandro Sarai & Sid Muralidhar Since migrants typically come from developing countries, with weak currencies, and are considered informal workers in developed countries, with hard(er) currencies, they slip through the economic and social cracks. Even if they earn a reasonable income, they do not have access to the formal financial sector and hence have no retirement security (much like informal workers in developed or developing countries). Brazil’s digitally-enabled, through Tesouro Direto, RendA+ retirement income bond, designed along the...

July 5, 2024
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05Jul

Japan’s GPIF Loses Status as World’s Biggest Pension Fund

Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund was dethroned as the world’s biggest pool of retirement savings as a depreciating yen eroded the value of its assets in dollar terms. The fund posted a record gain for the three months through March, generating a 9.5% return, but the yen’s slump to a 38-year low against the greenback was deep enough to put the value of its assets below that of Norway’s wealth fund in dollar terms.     Government Pension Investment Fund, Tokyo, posted a...

July 5, 2024
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03Jul

Canadian pension plans were volatile in Q2: Mercer

Defined-benefit (DB) pension plans in Canada experienced volatility throughout the second quarter of 2024 due to interest rate changes and market instability, according to Mercer Canada. The DB plans tracked in Mercer’s database had an average solvency ratio of 118% on March 29, 123% on April 30, 122% on May 31 and 118% on June 28. The solvency ratio is the ratio of plan assets to liabilities. “The overall financial health of DB pension plans in Canada remains strong,” said Jared Mickall,...

July 3, 2024
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03Jul

Invesco Launches New Global Climate ETF with $1.6 Billion from Pension Insurer Varma

Global asset manager Invesco announced the launch of the Invesco MSCI Global Climate 500 ETF (KLMT), and new exchange traded fund providing exposure to companies meeting environmental and climate criteria and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The new ETF, trading on the NYSE, is being launched with a $1.6 billion investment by Finnish pension insurer, Varma. Timo Sallinen, Varma’s Head of Listed Securities, said: “We are very pleased to work alongside Invesco, one the world’s biggest asset managers, and MSCI, a leading global index...

July 3, 2024
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02Jul

UK. DC pension schemes see rise in investments in assets with climate targets

The defined contribution (DC) pension scheme market has seen almost a quarter (23%) increase in schemes’ investment in assets with climate targets since 2021, according to research from Barnett Waddingham. The majority (86%) of DC pension schemes have set targets to reach net-zero by 2050, with 18% of these targeting 2040. Of the pension schemes that have set net-zero targets, 81% have committed to achieving interim targets, in many cases aiming to achieve a 50% emissions reduction by 2030. Barnett Waddingham said:...

July 2, 2024
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01Jul

US. CalPERS breaks with its past

Over the past year, the US’s largest public pension system, CalPERS, has been making some interesting moves. CalPERS has been making commitments to private equity funds much smaller in size than it has traditionally targeted, including growth-oriented and venture capital vehicles. Historically, CalPERS has built its private equity portfolio to reflect its own massive size – choosing large funds into which it could make sizable investments that gave it outsized influence on the GP and potential access to choice economics and...

July 1, 2024
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June 2024
28Jun

The list of money managers axing oil stocks just got longer

There’s a growing list of institutional investors in Europe who are stripping oil and gas stocks out of their portfolios, in a move they say reduces the risk of ending up with stranded assets and financial losses. The latest to do so is PFA, Denmark’s largest commercial pension fund with roughly USD 110bn of assets under management. The investor has just offloaded its USD 170m stake in Shell Plc based on an assessment that the company’s capital expenditure on renewables...

June 28, 2024
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27Jun

Commentary: Investors’ role addressing intergenerational risk of LGBTQIA+ inequity

Investor demand for LGBTQIA+ investment options is strong and set to grow, so why is the market not responding? Today, the proportion of the population identifying as a member of the LGBTQIA+ community is estimated to grow exponentially, with each generation nearly twice as likely as the generation preceding it to identify as LGBTQIA+, according to Gallup. However, our systems — spanning corporate human resources, education, healthcare and more — are unprepared to address this ongoing generational shift. The exclusion of...

June 27, 2024
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25Jun

US. DOL report inconclusive on pension risk transfer market, needs more research

The U.S. Department of Labor is not proposing specific changes to Congress regarding Interpretive Bulletin 95-1, its Employee Benefits Security Administration guidance related to the fiduciary standards of pension risk transfer transactions. Instead, the DOL believes further exploration into the evolution of the PRT market may warrant changes in the future. A report released June 24 was required by SECURE 2.0, the retirement security package Congress passed in December 2022. The bulletin, IB 95-1, outlines the process plan fiduciaries must take when executing...

June 25, 2024
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