December 2022
14Dec

Climate change could cost pension funds billions, EU watchdog says

Pension funds across the European Union would lose billions of euros from their investments in polluting industries without action to mitigate the impact of climate change, the bloc's first stress test of its kind showed on Tuesday. The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) said its test covered 187 pension funds from 18 EU member states with more than 1.98 trillion euros ($2 trillion) of assets, or 65% of assets in defined benefit and defined contribution schemes. The funds were...

December 14, 2022
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13Dec

UK. TPR calls for trustees to increase investment decision skills

Trustees should take advantage of available support and guidance to increase their skills in relation to investment decisions, The Pensions Regulator (TPR) executive director of policy, analysis and advice, David Fairs, has said. In a blog post, Fairs argued that defined contribution (DC) pension scheme trustees should take action to enable pension savers access to the investment opportunities that best support good outcomes. Fairs suggested that while DC trustees are at a fork in the road on their DC journey, “the...

December 13, 2022
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13Dec

Vanguard defends strategy as critics pile on after net-zero exit

Vanguard Group is under pressure to reassure stakeholders that it still cares about the climate, after becoming the target of fierce criticism from high-profile environmental advocates including Al Gore. The former U.S. vice president, who now chairs Generation Investment Management, called Vanguard's decision to quit the world's biggest climate-finance alliance "irresponsible and shortsighted." Mr. Gore also suggested the asset manager, which oversees $7.1 trillion in client funds, was out of step with the zeitgeist. It's a sentiment that was echoed by...

December 13, 2022
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13Dec

Financial institutions call on world leaders to adopt Global Biodiversity Framework

World leaders have been urged by 150 financial institutions representing more than US $24trn in assets to adopt a post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework at the UN Biodiversity Conference COP15. As reported by our sister publication, European Pensions, the statement is led by the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), the UN Environment Programme Finance Initiative and the Finance for Biodiversity Foundation, and calls on governments from around the world to adopt the framework for economic players, including financial institutions. The framework aims...

December 13, 2022
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08Dec

Vanguard quits Net Zero Asset Managers initiative

Vanguard Group is leaving an asset managers initiative committed to net-zero goals and will pursue similar objectives independently, it said Wednesday in a statement on its website. With roughly $8.1 trillion under management, Vanguard was one of the largest members of the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative, which as of November had 291 signatories with a collective $66 trillion under management, committed to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Vanguard said in its statement that it was withdrawing from the initiative it...

December 8, 2022
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08Dec

BlackRock adding ESG policy to its flagship U.K. DC strategy

BlackRock is formally incorporating an ESG policy into its flagship defined contribution strategy in the U.K., the asset manager said in a news release Wednesday. The LifePath U.K. series of target-date funds launched in 1997 had £9.2 billion ($10 billion) in assets under management as of Sept. 30. It provides access to 11 asset classes through index funds. Adding the ESG policy "is a continuation and evolution of LifePath U.K.'s ESG journey, which began in 2019, and reflects scheme members' requirements...

December 8, 2022
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08Dec

Canada’s biggest pension plan, CPPI, ends crypto investment pursuit

Canada's biggest pension fund, CPP Investments, has ended its effort to study investment opportunities in the volatile crypto market, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters. The reasons behind CPPI's abandonment of crypto research were not immediately clear. CPPI declined to comment but said it has made no direct investments in crypto. It referred to previous comments on cryptocurrency by its CEO, John Graham, in which he sounded a note of caution. Read also Swedish pension funds invest in cryptocurrency CPPI's...

December 8, 2022
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06Dec

Ghana. Pensions will be protected against Debt Exchange – TUC assures workers

The Trades Union Congress(TUC) has assured that it will take steps to safeguard workers’ pensions amid the implementation of government’s Domestic Debt Exchange (DDX) Programme. In a statement issued on Monday, the TUC expressed disquiet about the failure of government to engage Labour ahead of the launch given that substantial portion of workers’ pension is invested in government bonds. Read also Shelter Afrique target East African bourses, pension funds in USD 500mn housing bond Nonetheless, the TUC appealed to all workers...

December 6, 2022
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05Dec

Swedish pension funds invest in cryptocurrency

Swedish public pension funds have invested hundreds of millions of kronor in a cryptocurrency company that has lost 87 per cent of its share value, Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter (DN) reported on Saturday. Four public pension funds, which manage the pension money on behalf of the Swedish public, have invested more than SEK200 million (USD19 million) in Coinbase, a cryptocurrency trading company, according to the report. Details of how many shares have been bought and sold were not revealed. But DN...

December 5, 2022
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05Dec

Private Debt Funds Tap Australia’s $2.3 Trillion Pension Savings

After winning over some of the biggest retirement plans in the US, private credit managers have found new fertile ground for their investment pitch: Australia’s $2.3 trillion pension industry. Four of the top-10 pensions Down Under -- Australian Retirement Trust, HostPlus, UniSuper and Colonial First State -- are making significant increases to their private credit allocations, according to recent statements and interviews with Bloomberg News. AustralianSuper, the nation’s largest, is midway into a three-year push to triple its allocation. That’s music...

December 5, 2022
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