All Features articles
View all stories of the same content type.
-
FeaturesFixed income, rates, currencies: Economies at a sensitive juncture
Another new year and we are still in a COVID pandemic, as we were a year ago, although this time with economic grow-th looking pretty robust across the world. But, despite the best efforts of healthcare workers, scientists and politicians, the virus continues to exert an unnervingly strong influence on all our lives.
-
Features
Long term matters: ISSB, please don’t choose to play small
The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) is a major development. ISSB has rightly made climate risk its initial priority but now has an important choice to make. Will it help investors address climate-related systemic risk or will it continue with ‘business as usual’, enabling investors to play small?
-
Features
Creating investable opportunities for caring for the elderly
The world is ageing and the liberal democracies in the developed markets are among the fastest in that respect. China, having had 35 years of a one child policy from 1980 to 2015, also faces the challenges of dealing with a rapidly ageing population. Many working adults face a future of caring for two parents and four grandparents as a result.
-
Features
Briefing: Unfinished business on IORP II
Almost three years on from the effective date for the implementation of IORP II, the directive is still being worked on, amended and adapted by Europe’s regulators. What will 2022 bring for the regulation of the EU’s pension funds?
-
Features
Briefing - Private equity: the case for transparency
A recent paper published by US-based academic Ashby Monk and others arguably says it all in its title – *An Economic Case for Transparency in Private Equity*.
-
Features
Briefing: EU strengthens rules on green disclosure
Investment firms need to familiarise themselves with a range of new environmental issues to prepare for a European Union law aimed at consistent environmental disclosures that also support investment decisions on environmental sustainability.
-
Features
Perspective - Blended finance: the ultimate impact investment
Calls for a greater role for blended finance expose the challenges and opportunities of public-private collaboration
-
Features
Guest Viewpoint - Sebastien Betermier: Four takeaways for equitable CDC pension design
The combination of ultra-low interest rates and high longevity is putting a major strain on retirement systems across the globe. A recent report by the World Economic Forum predicts that the global gap between retirement savings and retirement needs will reach $400trn by 2050.
-
Features
Letter from Australia: Private gain as Australia’s infra assets change hands
Australian superannuation funds are playing a key role in the largest takeover yet of an Australian infrastructure asset, Sydney Airport, for A$23.6bn (€15bn) in cash.
-
Features
Strategically Speaking - AlbaCore Capital: Alternative credit with pension fund roots
AlbaCore Capital, a Europe-based alternative credit specialist with North American roots, is a fairly rare example of an asset management company that was spun off from a pension fund. David Allen, founder and CIO, established the company in 2016, with a team of European alternative credit specialists that he led from within the $542bn (€366bn) Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB).
-
Features
Ahead of the curve: M&A revival a potential risk to investment grade fundamentals
Following a brief but sharp decline, 2021 merger and acquisition (M&A) volumes have surpassed pre-pandemic levels as large corporations seek to gain scale and position themselves for continued growth in years to come.
-
Features
Letter from US: Liquidity tops the agenda for US pension plans
Monitoring and managing liquidity will be a major issue for many US pension funds in 2022. The risk of a liquidity crunch affects public systems above all, but corporate plans are not immune.
-
Features
Research - DB pensions: a high-wire act in the end game
In the second article in a series, Pascal Blanqué and Amin Rajan outline the intricacies of managing a defined benefit pension plan in the run-off phase
-
-
-
Features
IPE Quest Expectations Indicator - January 2022
Being sure of opinions
With all eyes on inflation, political risk is not expressed in market sentiment, perhaps with the exception of the UK. -
Features
Strategically speaking: IFM Investors
When IFM Investors and its fellow consortium members cracked open the bubbly last month on their successful bid for Sydney Airport following a third revised offer, it marked a bet on a vigorous and sustained recovery in passenger aviation. After all, airports globally, including Sydney, had come to resemble “parking lots for planes”, in the words of IFM Investors CEO David Neal.
-
Features
Guest Viewpoint: Fiona Reynolds
Public and private sector leaders from around the world gathered in Glasgow for the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) last month to tackle the climate crisis and kick off the next decade of climate policy.
-
Features
Perspective: Sweden reshapes national ethical stewardship
The Swedish buffer funds are taking stock as the long-standing secretary general of the Council on Ethics steps down
-
Features
Fixed income, rates, currencies: Policy normalisation kicks in
Although several emerging market (EM) central banks have been hiking rates for a few months already this year, particularly in Latin America, it was only in the third quarter of 2021 that the global share of central banks raising official rates moved above 50%. This is the first time in three years that this has been the case, as several developed market central banks joined emerging market counterparts to tighten rates.
