Guest viewpoint: The UK pensions sector should be more aggressive on consolidation
Pension funds on the record: Reflections on a sobering year
Delivering pensions ‘like a Bosch’: Bosch pensionsfonds
Mirova’s Philippe Zaouati: realistically optimistic
Country Report - Pensions in the Nordic Region (December 2022)
Special Report - Prospects 2023
Asset Class Report - Equities (December 2022)
Top news
Fiduciary managers face challenges as growth slows and AUM falls
Total fiduciary management AUM decreased 5% to £218bn in 2022, largely as result of a rise in yields driving declines in Gilts and LDI portfolios
People news: Velliv hires London economist for new role
Pictet AM, First Sentier, PGIM, Impax, SEI, IIGCC, DWS, Movestic, Velliv, Janus Henderson
UK pensions regulator issues LDI guidance
TPR is also calling on pension fund trustees investing in leveraged LDI to improve their schemes’ operational governance
Investors must work with EM governments on climate plans, says Allianz board member
Biggest stumbling block for institutional investors keen to allocate capital to climate projects in emerging markets is the lack of suitable projects
KLP shakes up group management to speed decision-making
Norway’s main municipal pensions provider adds four new roles on top team, and releases the heads of group’s more independent divisions
Goldman Sachs AM expands Dutch fiduciary team
GSAM is not looking for rationalisation of its organisation, but for growth, according to CEO Fadi Abuali
World’s largest asset owners oversee $26trn, says Thinking Ahead Institute
Top 20 asset owners are responsible for $14.1trn, or the majority (55%) of the top 100
Impact Cubed launches free ESG analytics platform for public pension funds
A pension fund using the platform can see the granular ESG impact of their portfolios, funds, securities and more
UK roundup: Balfour Beatty in £1.7bn longevity transaction
Plus: Room for improvement on pension funds’ sustainability strategies
German pension funds look at ESG to invest in alternatives
IPE Research: Top pension funds face washout investment year
Danish teachers’ pension fund to shed €269m of fossil equities
AP7 sues US gaming firm and Microsoft over planned merger
UK’s Health Foundation picks Redington for responsible investment advice
Uncertainty for sustainable investing as CSRD legislation is adopted
Norway liquidates crisis bond fund despite resurgence of high rates
PenSam, Greater Manchester demand tax transparency from ConocoPhillips
UK mini budget accelerates DB schemes de-risking, says Russell Investments
Enpam to record negative results this year due to global turmoil
‘Many companies’ Swiss BVK holds are not in line with climate goals
Dutch pension funds give double-digit indexations despite investment losses
ISSB vice-chair clarifies reach of sustainability reporting standards
Net Zero Asset Owners lay out expectations for private markets managers
Swiss pension funds put at risk efforts to achieve climate goals
Oil and gas extraction and power generation represent more than 50% of the exposure of equity portfolios of pension funds
AP2 to focus climate efforts on driving down company emissions
Swedish national pensions buffer fund uses own analysis to find the true derivation of portfolio emissions reductions
Mirova’s Philippe Zaouati: realistically optimistic
Asset management CEOs tend to be a clever bunch, but there cannot be many who are familiar with the work of Antonio Gramsci, the 20th century Italian socialist philosopher.
Delivering pensions ‘like a Bosch’: Bosch pensionsfonds
Dirk Jargstorff (pictured right), CEO of the pioneering Bosch Pensionsfonds, and Christian Zeidler, CFO, talk to Carlo Svaluto Moreolo on the fund’s 20-year anniversary
Pension funds on the record: Reflections on a sobering year
Pension fund managers reflect on an extremely challenging year for markets and look to the future, considering questions such as what is risk-free, how to secure inflation-linked assets, the role of central banks and the risk of liquidity crises
Ircantec: Aiming for core sustainability
Myriam Métais andCécilia Lyet (pictured) of France’s Caisse des Dépôts talk to Carlo Svaluto Moreolo about managing the reserves of Ircantec, the supplementary scheme for public sector employees
17Capital’s Pierre-Antoine de Selancy: Navigating NAV lending
Pierre-Antoine de Selancy has just left a meeting with his company’s new majority shareholder, Oaktree, and is running a little late. His days are busy. De Selancy is founder and managing partner of 17Capital, a London-based boutique specialised in providing NAV finance to private equity managers.
KLP shakes up group management to speed decision-making
Norway’s main municipal pensions provider adds four new roles on top team, and releases the heads of group’s more independent divisions
Goldman Sachs AM expands Dutch fiduciary team
GSAM is not looking for rationalisation of its organisation, but for growth, according to CEO Fadi Abuali
UK fiduciary manages wrangle with LDI fallout
UK Gilt yields rose throughout 2022, even before September’s well-publicised spike caused by the unfunded mini budget. Fears of global inflation, exacerbated by the energy crisis and geopolitical uncertainty following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, took UK 10-year yields from around 1% in January to 3% in mid-September.
US dollar strength and the issues facing institutional investors
Most central banks across the world are raising interest rates – some more aggressively than others – but it is proving hard for any of them to out-hike the US Federal Reserve. The resulting widening interest rate differentials have been an important factor in the appreciation of the US currency.
The rising influence of target-date funds on capital markets
One of the fastest growing markets in recent years is the US retirement market. Since 1995, the investment volume has increased six-fold, so that by the end of 2021, the market stood for almost $40trn (€40.1trn) AUM.
Meloni grapples with Italy’s pension woes
Reforms usually follow general elections, regardless of the political system. Italy is no different. The most generous country in Europe in terms of pension payments, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Italy spends the equivalent of 15.6% of GDP on pensions.
Dutch pensions reform: A never ending story
In the last two years, nearly all my contributions for this section have been about the ongoing reform of the Dutch pension system, which will involve the transfer of defined-benefit (DB) accruals to a defined-contribution (DC) setting.
COP27: more questions than answers but reasons to hope
Despite the cynicism around COP27 last month, there were some potentially major developments for investors. Excitingly, a number of them address what’s often ignored in climate finance discussions: moving money.
Viewpoint: Net-zero-aligned investment in fossil fuels
Incentivising carbon capture would free institutional investors from having to make decisions about the climate
Guest viewpoint: The UK pensions sector should be more aggressive on consolidation
UK pension assets across both defined benefit (DB) and defined contribution (DC) funds are too fragmented, and our schemes, even the biggest, are sub-scale. Consolidation is not the answer to everything, but it is a big part of the solution.
Meloni grapples with Italy’s pension woes
Reforms usually follow general elections, regardless of the political system. Italy is no different. The most generous country in Europe in terms of pension payments, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Italy spends the equivalent of 15.6% of GDP on pensions.
Dutch pensions reform: A never ending story
In the last two years, nearly all my contributions for this section have been about the ongoing reform of the Dutch pension system, which will involve the transfer of defined-benefit (DB) accruals to a defined-contribution (DC) setting.
COP27: more questions than answers but reasons to hope
Despite the cynicism around COP27 last month, there were some potentially major developments for investors. Excitingly, a number of them address what’s often ignored in climate finance discussions: moving money.
Asset Class Report - Equities (December 2022)
Factor investment strategies were once the ‘new black’ - scientific, quant driven approaches that could deliver the ‘smart beta’ nirvana of lower volatility returns and optimised exposure to robust return premia from small cap, value and quality stocks. Pundits always warned adopters that not all factors would perform all of the time - and indeed they didn’t. But investors are taking a fresh look at factor strategies now the extended spell of outperformance of growth stocks has passed, and value has reasserted itself.
Private Markets Report
Our report looks at the impact of economic uncertainty on private debt strategies and on venture capital. We focus on the rising role of pension funds in the private equity secondaries market. We explain in detail what ‘tokenisation’ of private assets is and how it could change this market for institutional investors.
Emerging Market Debt Report (October 2022)
This year has seen hefty losses on the main emerging market debt indices, in both hard and local currency denominated bonds. Investors are left assessing whether these price moves are justified. Or has the market overreacted to US rate rises and the war in Ukraine, leaving markets as a whole underpriced?
Equities: Are Paris-aligned benchmarks a climate gamechanger?
Inflexible annual carbon reduction targets and weak data can lead to flawed decision-making
Credit: Inflation and the bond markets
Risks look likely to be building in credit as central banks wreak collateral damage on economies in their bid to tame inflation
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