January 2020

US. New York State pension fund puts 27 coal companies under review

New York state’s top pension fund official said it was reviewing whether to divest from 27 coal companies and could make decisions on $98 million in holdings within two months. The reviews by the third-largest U.S. state pension system, with $211 billion under management, could set the tone for other retirement plans facing public concerns about climate change. New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli in an interview on Tuesday said his office began reaching out several weeks ago to...

Measly Returns Spark $5 Billion Raid on Estonian Pension Savings

Cracking open a 4.85 billion-euro ($5.3 billion) piggy bank of pension savings may be a vote-winner. But Estonia’s plan to allow early access to retirement cash is facing a tide of criticism for being short-sighted. The government is meeting an election pledge by a junior coalition member to let more than half the Baltic nation’s 1.3 million residents reinvest or spend mandatory pension savings taken from tax contributions and gross salaries since 2002. The money would be released from...

Nigeria to borrow N2tn to fund infrastructure development

Nigeria’s National Economic Council (NEC) says the federal government has resolved to borrow two trillion from the current 10 trillion naira pension funds to finance the development of infrastructure. Niyi Falade, CEO of Crusader Sterling Pensions joins CNBC Africa to discuss this story. Watch de video in @CNBC Africa

New York City Takes ‘Major US. Next Step’ on Fossil Fuel Divestments

Meketa Investment Group has been selected to evaluate options and develop a prudent divestment strategy from fossil fuel companies in alignment with the fiduciary duties for New York City’s largest pension funds, the city’s mayor and comptroller announced. “While the Trump administration fails to address global warming as the crisis it is, New York City is taking action,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio. “We are dedicated to delivering what we owe to our children and grandchildren, which is why...

Morneau Shepell releases the results of its Performance Universe of Pension Managers’ Pooled Funds

Morneau Shepell (MSI.TO) has released the results of its Performance Universe of Pension Managers' Pooled Funds for the fourth quarter and for year 2019. According to the report, in the fourth quarter of 2019, diversified pooled fund managers posted a median return of 2.6 per cent before management fees. Since the beginning of the year, the return has been 15.8 per cent. "Both stock and bond markets posted very positive returns in 2019. The bond market posted a...

Ford to take $2.2 billion fourth-quarter loss related to pensions

Ford Motor Co. said late Wednesday it expects to take a fourth-quarter pretax charge of $2.2 billion related to pension obligations that will cut down on its net income. After taxes, the $2.2 billion loss is expected to slash Ford’s net income by about $1.7 billion, Ford F, -1.42% said in a filing. As it is a special item, the loss will not affect adjusted profit or adjusted per-share profit, the car maker said. It also did not...

Pension funds’ AUM set to rise to $61trn

Low interest rate environments in many developed nations, alongside increasingly volatile equity markets, are leading pension funds to adapt their investment strategies. In their search for yield, many are looking outside their borders as well as investing in alternatives, according to a new report by the Association of the Luxembourg Fund Industry (ALFI) produced by PwC Luxembourg. The report, which examines the growth of pension-fund assets, their foreign-investment limits, and other key trends, shows that pension-fund assets globally are...

Head of Canada Pension Fund Warns on Rush to Iliquid Assets

The biggest global funds should all be monitoring their investments in illiquid assets, according to the head of Canada’s largest pension fund. “I do ring the alarm bell on not to be too invested in illiquid assets,” Mark Machin, chief executive officer of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, said in a Bloomberg Television interview Monday at the World Economic Forum in Davos. “We are very comfortable with our risk models and what we would do in various lurches...

Climate change pushes investors to take their temperature

Policymakers are pushing investors to do more to ensure their portfolio choices help to meet the 2015 Paris Agreement to combat climate change by limiting planetary warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius, and preferably to 1.5C. A vanguard of insurers and pension funds, many of whom will be in Davos this week for the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, say part of the answer is a new “temperature score” that gives a snapshot of how their...

Japan supports IDB’s social projects in Caribbean

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) says it has partnered with Japan's Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) in promoting and developing “socially responsible capital markets” through investments in IDB social bonds focused on education-youth-employment (EYE) in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Washington-based financial institution on Wednesday said that its social (EYE) bonds “foster human capital development from the classroom to the workplace”. “The funds raised through them will finance projects in Latin America and the Caribbean that promote effective...