October 2022

Reforma Previsional en Chile: una demanda pendiente

Las AFP, o Administradoras de Fondos de Pensiones, cumplieron 42 años de funcionamiento. Antes existía en nuestro país un sistema de pensiones de reparto (sistema que se financia con los aportes que realizan los trabajadores activos y el Estado, por lo tanto el dinero aportado va a un fondo común con el cual se pagan las prestaciones; este sistema se concibe bajo los principios de solidaridad intergeneracional e intrageneracional), que agrupaba a un conjunto de cajas previsionales. Existía un consenso,...

Global financial instability risk hits new heights – IMF

A series of "cascading shocks" have raised the risk of global financial instability to new levels, officials with the International Monetary Fund said Tuesday. "It's difficult to think of a time where uncertainty was so high," Tobias Adrian, director of the IMF's monetary and capital markets department, said at a press briefing on the IMF's October 2022 Global Financial Stability Report. "The kind of risk we are flagging is the highest, outside of acute crisis," Antonio Garcia Pascual, deputy division chief...

US. N.J. pension fund would stop investing in fossil fuels under bill moved Thursday

The movement to divest pension funds from fossil fuel companies is gaining steam in New Jersey after lawmakers advanced a long-stalled bill Thursday. "What's proposed here is sending a signal to the fossil fuel world and industry that we've gotta find different ways to live - and you, the companies that produce these fuels, you've got to help us," said Sen. Bob Smith (D-Middlesex), a prime sponsor of the bill and chair of the Senate Energy Committee. The measure (S416) would...

Impact funds grow 40% over last two years, hitting $1 trillion

Impact investing has soared 40% over the past two years, according to a fresh analysis, as more money flows into strategies that actively seek to save the planet and its people. Investor allocations to impact investing, which targets specific environmental, social or governance outcomes instead of just screening for ESG risks, now stands at more than $1 trillion, according to the Global Impact Investing Network. That growth feeds into a maelstrom of discordant views around ESG that have plunged the once...

UK. Renewed focus on pension fund investment strategy following Bank of England’s intervention in gilt market

The ramifications of the Bank of England's urgent purchasing of government bonds are being felt by pension funds and some insurance firms. The upheaval in gilt (UK government bond) markets that led to last week's spectacular intervention from the Bank of England continues to reverberate. The Bank was obliged to buy long-dated gilts - those with a maturity of 20 or 30 years - on Wednesday last week following a wave of forced selling by pension funds. Those pension funds had been...

The Depth & Breadth of Sustainable Finance Regulatory Initiatives: Global Developments in 2022

By Lydia Sandner & Noam Cherki The scope and pace of global sustainable finance regulation has accelerated in 2022 across an array of regulatory areas (taxonomies, ESG and climate risk management and disclosures, product requirements, ESG in stewardship, and green bond frameworks). ▪ Regulatory efforts continue to prioritize management of climate-related financial risk as well as preventing greenwashing, although the agenda is beginning to expand to naturerelated risks and social issues as well. ▪ The European Union continues to be the leading...

Denominator effect causes plans to rethink allocations

A major reason pension funds are rethinking their asset allocations is an increased exposure to private assets — due, largely, to the denominator effect. Pension plans with private investments have seen that part of the portfolio "hold up pretty well vs. public equities and bonds that are down double digits this year," said Sona Menon, Boston-based head of North American pension practice at Cambridge Associates LLC. "This is a combination of what we call the denominator effect — because the...

September 2022

Ghana. SSNIT pension scheme continues to post negative return on investments; records -12.6% return in quarter 1 – Report

The Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) pension scheme continued to post a negative real rate of return, recording -12.6% at the end of the first quarter of this year. According to the Financial Stability Review report by the Bank of Ghana, assets available for benefits of the SSNIT-managed Basic National Social Security Scheme (BNSSS) dropped marginally by 2.3% to ¢11.28 billion in March 2022 from the ¢11.54 billion recorde in 2021 Quarter 4. Also, though the private pensions industry...

Pension Insurance Corporation Group Limited. Annual Report and Accounts 2021

By Pension Insurance Corporation Group Limited PIC is a specialist insurer which has become a leader in the UK pension risk transfer market by focusing on our purpose: to pay the pensions of our current and future policyholders. We aim to balance the interests of all our stakeholders – policyholders, employees, shareholders, regulators and others – with excellence in customer service at the heart of what we do. Source @PensionCorporation 558 views

UK pensions hit with £100m margin calls as gilts and sterling slide

At least three LDI managers request emergency capital as others consider unwinds to avoid default. UK pension funds have been hit with variation margin calls of as much as £100 million ($107 million) each, after sharp falls in gilts and sterling pushed mark-to-market valuations on derivatives and leveraged repo positions heavily against them. Simeon Willis, chief investment officer of consultancy XPS Pensions Group, says he knows of three different fund managers running pooled pension portfolios that have requested emergency capital...