November 2023

ESG and Public Pension Investing in 2023: A Year-To-Date Recap and Analysis

By Joshua Lichtenstein, Michael Littenberg & Reagan Haas Since 2021, Ropes & Gray has been actively tracking the various approaches states have taken on how or whether environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors should be applied to the investment decisions for public retirement systems. States have used legislative, administrative and enforcement mechanisms to address this area, which has been complemented by Congressional Republicans’ various attempts to shine a spotlight on ESG in recent months. Judging by the significant uptick in...

UK pension transfer boom continues as deals worth $11 bln struck

Two British insurers on Friday struck deals to take on a combined 8.8 billion pounds ($11 billion) of company pension liabilities, including the largest such UK deal so far, as pension schemes strive to limit their risks in volatile markets. Legal & General (LGEN.L) said it had agreed a so-called full buy-in to the Boots Pension Scheme worth 4.8 billion pounds, in what it said was the largest such deal in Britain by premium size. Pension insurance specialist Rothesay, meanwhile, said it...

U.K. retirement industry skeptical of government’s ‘pot for life’ proposal

Proposals by the government to alter retirement plans, including creating a "pot for life" concept and consulting on expanding the U.K. lifeboat fund's remit, were met with mixed reaction by the industry. Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt on Nov. 22 outlined his Autumn Statement — the government's latest tax and spending plans — with a proposal to allow participants to divert their contributions to a retirement plan of their choice. The government is launching a call for evidence for defined...

What do we know about China’s new financial watchdog?

China's Central Financial Commission (CFC), a new regulator with Premier Li Qiang as its head, held a meeting on Monday (Nov 20) and urged stronger supervision of risks in the financial sector as Beijing accelerates efforts to become a "major financial power". The setting up of the CFC underscores how the ruling Chinese Communist Party is tightening grip on the country's $61 trillion financial sector amid a destabilising property and local government debt crisis that has weighed on the economic...

German government to make pension funds join dashboard

The German government is preparing an ordinance to make pension funds exchange data with the pension dashboard – Digitale Rentenübersicht – by the end of next year, said Imke Petersen, head of the Zentralen Stelle für die Digitale Rentenübersicht (ZfDR), the unit within the first pillar manager Deutsche Rentenversicherung responsible for designing the platform. “On 31 December 2024 all pension funds will have not only to be registered with us, but also will be able to deliver [data],” Petersen said,...

IBM reopening pension plan turns industry heads

When it comes to dealing with an overfunded frozen pension plan, International Business Machines is putting into action what some of its peers are thinking about. The company recently confirmed that it will cancel its defined contribution plan company match and replace it with a component within its IBM Personal Pension Plan, a defined benefit plan, on Jan. 1. The 401(k) match is 5% of an employee’s salary. The IBM 401(k) Plus Plan had $53.2 billion in assets as of Dec....

AI and Retirement – How It Will Affect Your Retirement Savings

By Carolyn Young  Artificial Intelligence (AI) is impacting humans more than any of us realize. It’s being used by marketers to gain customer insights, by manufacturers to automate processes, and by many businesses to analyze data and improve efficiency. AI’s ability to rapidly analyze large amounts of data has also given it a huge role in the financial industry, and thus can impact your retirement savings in a variety of ways. In fact, AI is being used most by the banking...

US Pension Risk Transfer Market Expected to See $10 Billion In Q3 Deal Volume

Legal & General Retirement America (LGRA), a leading provider of pension risk solutions in the United States, today released the Q3 2023 edition of the US Pension Risk Transfer Monitor, which analyzes industry trends and market outlooks in the US. Following the largest first half on record for the US Pension Risk Transfer (PRT) market at $22.5 billion in deal volume, the Monitor reports an expected $10 billion in Q3 PRT market volume. While this is a decrease from last...

Knowledge Of ESG, Integration and Greenwashing Remains Low

Determining how best to incorporate environmental, social and governance factors across the investment portfolio continues to be a challenge for institutional investors, said Bonnie Treichel, founder and chief solutions officer at Endeavor Retirement, during the “Surveying the Landscape” session of CIO’s ESG livestream this month. Not Just a Label “How do people really understand this?” Treichel asked. “It’s really hard, because a lot of times, I’ll ask the question about ESG and an investment lineup, and the perspective that I hear...

Kenya. Pension returns negative on falling share prices

Kenyan pension schemes have registered negative returns in the quarter ended September on wider losses from equities, a new survey shows. According to the Performance Investment Management Survey by South Africa-based investment firm RisCura, the weighted average return of surveyed schemes was posted at negative 3.06 percent in the quarter from a return of 0.18 percent in the previous quarter. The weighted average return from equities deteriorated to a loss of 10.95 percent from losses of 4.27 percent in the quarter...