Regulator fines former Standard Life subsidiary £31m over annuity misselling
Standard Life Assurance failed to have robust systems and controls around its pension annuity sales, according to the FCA
New UK leader faces same Brexit challenges, say managers
Boris Johnson, former mayor of London, will become the UK’s prime minister tomorrow with the UK’s EU departure date of 31 October looming large on the horizon
Church of England creates risk-focused strategy role
Former Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Deutsche Bank strategy chief joins £8bn Church Commissioners for England
€75bn Australian pension mega-merger kicks off consolidation drive
First State Super and VicSuper deal will create Australia’s second biggest superannuation fund, and three more multi-billion-dollar deals are in the pipeline
Proxy adviser group revises best practice principles
Code of practice updated to introduce new governance, monitoring and reporting structures for proxy advisory companies
ESMA advises against explicit ESG analysis mandate for credit rating agencies
Watchdog says credit rating agencies should stay focused on creditworthiness, but transparency of how they consider ESG factors could be improved to help investors
€21bn pension merger back on track as transport sector schemes agree terms
Industry-wide pension schemes for railways and public transport agree to join forces after 2016 discussions collapsed
MSCI warns of €1bn-plus funds running liquidity risks
Data group analyses 400 UCITS funds and reports on liquidity profiles in wake of high-profile suspension of LF Woodford Equity Income fund
Mixed pension fund response to Swedish government green bonds plan
Financial markets minister Per Bolund says investors will play a ‘central role’ in the green transition as government sets out plan to issue debt by next year
PensionDanmark, Industriens return to PRI after 2013 spat
All six Danish pension funds that exited the PRI six years ago have now returned as signatories in the wake of a governance review
Local authority fund shifts £500m into low-carbon index tracker
Swansea Council’s £2.1bn pension fund wants to reduce its exposure to carbon-intensive companies and fossil fuel investments by up to 50% by 2022
Digital Edition
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On the record: China
We asked two pension funds to tell us about the case for investing in China and their experience with investing in the country
How we run our money: Eni
Carlo di Gennaro, head of global group pensions at Eni, tells Carlo Svaluto Moreolo how the oil and gas company is streamlining its pension strategy
China: To be or not to be
Investors are divided on whether to classify Chinese equities as a distinct asset class
Becoming a mortgage lender
More pension funds are eyeing residential mortgages as an asset class
Economic outlook: Dancing with steamrollers
Clouds are gathering for the global economy
Relative response to liquidity issues
Equity risk is a crucial portfolio exposure for pension funds and a key driver for long-term retirement outcomes for pension plans and their beneficiaries. Yet the structure of equity markets is in transition, which changes the way pension funds choose to allocate capital to them.
The Disneyworld trap
The remarkable reversal in the outlook for official interest rates over the past few months has received relatively little attention. Until recently it was widely accepted that rates could only move upwards. It looked almost certain that quantitative tightening (QT) would supplant quantitative easing (QE). Now the balance has reverted to further monetary accommodation.
Government Bonds - Euro-zone: Turning Japanese
The euro-zone appears to be in a low-growth liquidity trap redolent of Japan
Hedge Funds - Technology: The next generation
Advances in artificial technology and computing power are opening paths to new hedge funds strategies
European Equities - Auto sector: Rough road ahead
Europe’s automotive industry faces global challenges ranging from emissions standards to trade disputes and radical transformation of the industry
Animal welfare: Probing the global meat complex
Everyone knows about ‘big oil’ and how much influence the global agribusiness sector has. But there is less awareness about the negative impacts of meat producers – the ‘global meat complex’.
Guest viewpoint: Adam Matthews and John Howchin
“The Brumadinho dam tragedy causes us to question if we have created the conditions for a set of disasters”
Long-term matters: Exxon’s AGM – can investors learn from the slave trade?
English evangelical protestants allied with the Quakers initiated the campaign to abolish the UK slave trade in the early nineteenth century. Two centuries later, the Vatican has said that climate change is a “moral and religious imperative for humanity”. Will the fate of fossil fuel companies be defined by public, sovereign and religious investors? And can other investors watch from the sidelines?
Guest viewpoint: Beat Zaugg
A striking indication of ESG’s importance in Switzerland is that Ueli Maurer, the country’s president, will be the keynote speaker at the Swiss Sustainable Finance annual conference in Bern
Don’t panic (yet) about populism
When I called for investor engagement with Facebook and the social media giants, I did not expect to see a sovereign wealth fund leading such an initiative just three months later
