January 2022

The elephant in the room: Bringing sustainable investment to Africa

By Fiona Stewart The coronavirus pandemic has renewed interest in sustainable investing strategies that allow investors to both protect the financial value of their assets and contribute to solutions to global problems such as climate change. These investments have become increasingly mainstream, and now account for more than $39 trillion in the five major global markets, a 34 percent increase over two years, according to the latest trends reported by the Global Sustainable Investment Alliance. Read also Ghana. Lack of Pension...

Pension funds and other institutional investors reduce allocations to fixed income, says survey

In a new Aeon Investments' survey of pension funds and other institutional investors in Europe and the US, who collectively have around USD436.5 billion in assets under management, nearly one in four (23 per cent) said they have reduced their allocation to traditional fixed income assets over the past 18 months by up to 10 per cent, and half (51 per cent) said they have cut it by between 10 per cent and 15 per cent. A further 14 per...

Japan’s Sustainable Bond Market Helps Fund Aging Population

Japan is using the corporate bond market to tackle the challenge of having the world’s oldest population. Daiwa Securities Living Investment Corp. became the latest issuer to tap the market for social debt on Tuesday with the sale of a 10-year bond to refinance investments in facilities for the elderly at a coupon of 0.46%. Although the amount raised was only 2 billion yen ($17.5 million), the bond follows offers last year from Daiwa House Reit Investment Corp., United Urban Investment...

It’s Not ‘Woke’ for Businesses to Think Beyond Profit, BlackRock Chief Says

Laurence D. Fink, the founder and chief executive of the investment giant BlackRock, has become one of the most influential voices in business over the past decade in pushing corporate leaders to think beyond profits, to their social purpose. Read also Canada. ESG challenges: talent shortage and lack of consistent standards Mr. Fink has delivered his words in annual letters that have drawn remarkable attention, but also criticism from all corners: that he is beholden to politically correct antibusiness activists, or...

UK. Expert calls on pension funds to fill fintech growth funding cap

The author of a major review of UK fintech has called on pension funds to back British entrepreneurs and fill a major growth funding gap in the sector just as government reviews whether to relax restrictions on pension fund investment. Ron Kalifa, who masterminded the government-commissioned Kalifa Review of Fintech last year, told City AM that pension funds have an opportunity to help British entrepreneurs grow their business domestically and drive job creation rather than selling at the growth stage. He...

The Sustainable Finance Policy Tracker

By OMFIF The Sustainable Finance Policy Tracker provides a comprehensive overview of different countries’ approaches to mitigating climate risks in the financial sector. Covering 22 countries and jurisdictions, the tracker presents information on 14 areas that include regulatory and supervisory measures, climate stress testing activity, net zero strategies, green bond issuance and disclosure requirements. On the interactive map, use the drop-down menu to select indicators. Scroll over the map to view more information. On the country directory, select a country or jurisdiction to...

Development an optimization plan for redistributing pension assets applying information technologies

By Svitlana Achkasova & Yevheniia Malyshko The issue of the significance of the role of information technologies in the pension system was highlighted. The information and communication model of the state regulation of financial support of the pension system in the market of non-banking financial services was considered. The essence of information and communication support of the risk-oriented approach to the system of accumulative pension provision, which involves preventing the information and technological probability of risks, was explored. The issues...

Commentary: China and ESG — a delicate balance

China and sustainable investing are two of the most important growth drivers for the asset management industry. So far, fund managers have pursued these two efforts in splendid isolation, without worrying about how activism at home might affect business in China. We expect this partition of affairs won't be sustainable for much longer. China represents the single most attractive new growth region for asset managers. It is already the second-largest market (after the U.S.) for asset management services: By year-end...

Taiwan fund to issue $2.3 bln climate change pension mandate, Asia’s first -official

Taiwan's largest pension fund is set to issue what a top official said is Asia's first climate change-focused stock mandate, worth $2.3 billion, amid mounting pressure for the global financial sector to support green investing. The open-tender bidding process for asset managers seeking to be involved in the Bureau of Labor Funds mandate will commence in the first quarter of the year, Liu Liju, deputy director general at the fund, told Reuters in an interview. The fund has Taiwanese $5.5 trillion...

ESG Investing Is Not Sustainable Investing

There’s a lot of confusion in the marketplace regarding ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) and Sustainable, sometimes known as SRI (Sustainable, Responsible, and Impact) investing. Many people think the two terms are interchangeable – I’m here to tell you that they aren’t. Blackrock BLK +0.4%, Vanguard, and other big investment houses are simply capitalizing on the growing interest in values-aligned investing. In fact, they have invested a significant amount of money in marketing ESG to have you believe that they are...