IPE’s columnists and guest writers dig into the hot topics for the pensions and investment industries with thoughtful commentary and reaction from around the world
Reporting of value chain emissions, whether upstream such as purchased goods, or downstream – such as product use (think combustion of fossil fuels), will be abandoned
F Scott Fitzgerald famously wrote that “the test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function”.
A peculiar parallel can be drawn between the Italian second-pillar pension industry and the country’s national rugby union team and its supporters, which every year since 2000 gets excited about the Six Nations Championship.
German companies consider the shortage of skilled workers as one of the biggest risks for the future of their business. According to market data portal Statista, 58% of firms see the lack of qualified workers putting operations at risk in the next few months, second only to the risks posed by energy and commodity prices (61%).
Australia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Future Fund, which was designed to cover unfunded Federal government pension liabilities, is poised to “renew and refresh”, following the appointment of Greg Combet as its new chair from mid-2024.
Does US public pension funds’ use of borrowed money and derivatives pose systemic risks to global financial markets? That is the concern of global regulators, which have recently stepped up scrutiny of the practice, according to a recent article in the Financial Times (FT). But senior executives interviewed by IPE seem less worried.
“If men could learn from history, what lessons it might teach us. But passion and party blind our eyes.”
This is a great book for anybody who would like to understand the causes and dynamics of financial crises. The author delivers deep insights into systemic financial risks for our economies, and why risk management tools and regulations fail when it matters most. The text is written in conversational style, full of anecdotes, wisdoms and polemics, which makes reading a pleasure even for the non-expert. To be recommended not only for risk managers but also for investment directors and trustees.
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F Scott Fitzgerald famously wrote that “the test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function”.
When members of the European Union accession generation from central and eastern European (CEE) countries were young they used to dream of visiting Santa Claus in Lapland. As travel abroad was not permitted and communications were not developed, they wrote letters and waited impatiently for their presents to arrive.
Australia’s largest integrated power generator and energy retailer, Origin, lost out on becoming a cornerstone investment in the US$15bn (€13.7bn) Brookfield Global Transition Fund after a failed A$20bn (€12.2bn) attempt by a Brookfield-led consortium to take over Origin last year.
The three major 2024 trends in the US retirement industry, according to senior industry figures interviewed by IPE, are:
The Dutch parliamentary elections of 22 November not only resulted in a historic victory for Geert Wilders. The record loss of the governing coalition also meant the new Pension Act no longer has majority support in parliament.
The pressure on pension funds to invest in domestic assets never fades. Certain countries, notably in Northern Europe, have dealt with it better, for historical and cultural reasons.
As the UK heads for a general election this year, both major parties (Labour and Conservative) will be proclaiming their solutions to the UK’s perennial problems of chronically low levels of investment, a dearth of new innovative companies and disappointing growth.
The final two months of 2023 saw a return to form for global fixed income and equities, with respectable single and double-digit numbers in each case. After a false start in early 2023, at least for a multitude of asset forecasters, bonds were finally back in the final months of last year.
Governments, regulators, central banks and even trustees are talking about illiquid investments and the productive economy. This is correctly driven by an underlying belief that illiquid assets can improve overall portfolio risk-adjusted returns. But most importantly, if defined contribution (DC) trustees are already keen to get behind productive finance, where do they start if they currently allocate nothing to illiquids?
A new superannuation advocacy body has been established in Australia. Known as the Super Members Council of Australia (SMC), it will become the voice of Australia’s rapidly-growing profit-to-members super funds.