March 2020

09Mar

Stock Markets Plunge Across the World as Coronavirus Sparks Oil Price War

Global stock markets, already reeling from intense panic over the spread of the novel coronavirus, plunged on Monday as oil prices nose-dived by more than 30 percent—the biggest daily drop since the Gulf War in 1991—after Saudi Arabia shocked the world by launching a price war against Russia. The drop comes as the number of confirmed cases of the virus reached nearly 110,000 worldwide. Read also PPI Coverage: Coronavirus’s effects on pensions Economists in the United States and Europe are now bracing for what...

March 9, 2020
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06Mar

UK. PLSA Calls for Pensions to Hold Companies Accountable for Climate Change

In its updated annual stewardship and voting guide, the UK’s Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA), whose members are responsible for approximately £1 trillion ($1.28 trillion) in pension assets, said plan investors need to hold the directors of the companies they invest in accountable for the way they manage climate change risks. The guidelines are intended to be a resource to provide pension trustees with practical guidance when considering how to exercise their votes at annual general meetings. The...

March 6, 2020
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February 2020

28Feb

Nigeria. Investing pension funds: Worries, prospects by stakeholders

Just before the federal government decided to step down borrowing from the dormant pension fund, reactions ranging from worries to expectations continued to trail the plan by government to utilise N2 trillion of the current N10 trillion available pension fund in developing infrastructure through the creation of products that Pension Fund Administrators (PFA) would be attracted to invest in. The government’s plan is aimed at improving infrastructure such as railway, road, electricity, among others, while also creating areas of opportunities...

February 28, 2020
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27Feb

JP Morgan Chase Commits $200 Billion to Sustainability Financing

JPMorgan Chase said Tuesday that it’s committing $200 billion in financing this year to expand its sustainability goals, which include imposing restrictions on lending to coal mining companies and ending direct funding of Arctic drilling projects. The bank said it will no longer lend to capital markets or give advisory services to companies that get a majority of their revenues from coal extraction. By 2024, the bank said it will phase out its remaining credit exposure to those businesses....

February 27, 2020
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January 2020

24Jan

Achieving Investment Excellence: A Practical Guide for Trustees of Pension Funds, Endowments and Foundations

By Kees Koedijk, Alfred Slager, Jaap van Dam Achieving Investment Excellence offers trustees and asset managers a comprehensive handbook for improving the quality of their investments. With a stated goal of substantially and sustainably improving annual returns, this book clarifies and demystifies important concepts surrounding trustee duties and responsibilities, investment strategies, analysis, evaluation and much more. Low interest rates are making the high cost of future pension payouts fraught with tension, even as the time and knowledge required to...

January 24, 2020
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07Jan

Beyond green ambitions

By Liam Kennedy Europe has lofty ambitions as it positions the European Green Deal as Europe’s growth plan for the coming decade and beyond. There is much to do to promote sustainability in Europe and the EU can undoubtedly blaze a trail. But the incoming Commission will also need to maintain its focus on the Capital Markets Union (CMU), the flagship economic policy of the previous Commission. One element of the CMU as announced in 2014 was indeed to foster...

January 7, 2020
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03Jan

Impact Investing

By Brad M. Barber, Adair Morse, Ayako Yasuda We document that investors derive nonpecuniary utility from investing in dual-objective VC funds, thus sacrificing returns. Impact funds earn 4.7 percentage points (ppts) lower IRRs ex post than traditional VC funds. In random utility/willingness-to-pay (WTP) models investors accept 2.5-3.7 ppts lower IRRs ex ante for impact funds. The positive WTP result is robust to fund access rationing and investor heterogeneity in fund expected returns. Development organizations, foundations, financial institutions, public pensions,...

January 3, 2020
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December 2019

27Dec

Latvia. Investments in Sustainable Pension Plan Exceed 2 Million Euro

At the end of May, Citadele Bank’s subsidiary, CBL Asset Management, created Latvia’s first pension plan whose pension savings are invested in businesses which are the most sustainable in their respective industries: protecting the environment, taking care of their employees and acting responsibly in the long term. In just over six months, Latvia’s first pension plan based on responsible investments has been able to attract a relatively large amount of attention from the public, and currently, total assets have...

December 27, 2019
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10Dec

Canada’s second largest pension fund gets deadly serious about climate crisis

As world leaders converge at this week’s climate summit in Madrid to debate how best to shift to a net zero-economy, Michael Sabia is leaving the helm of Canada’s second-largest pension plan having firmly placed Quebec’s retirement savings at the forefront of the global movement for low-carbon investing. Sabia, who recently announced he’s stepping down from the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) in early 2020, ushered in a fundamental change in how the $326 billion Quebec...

December 10, 2019
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06Dec

ESG investing to move faster in Asia

Although in its initial stages and faced with challenges, opportunities in ESG investing are rising in Asia. Thanks to a governmental push as well as growing ESG awareness and compliance among institutional investors, sustainability is quickly picking up in Asia, though challenges still exist. Featuring Christopher Hui, executive director, Financial Services Development Council; Karine Hirn, partner, chief sustainability officer, East Capital; William Ng, ESG engagement analyst, investment team, HSBC Global Asset Management; and Paul Milon, sustainability and ESG integration specialist, BNP...

December 6, 2019
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