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FeaturesTransformation as a strategy
Investing sustainably is making the jump from niche to mainstream, but as it gains in popularity, it is also becoming far more complex. Whereas investors initially preferred to exclude problematic companies or even entire sectors, there has since been a shift in attitudes.
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Features
Research: A new understanding of investor satisfaction
Compelling statistics highlight the differences in the economic value of service quality in institutional markets
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Features
Pensions Insider: Silence can be golden
In the fifth of a series of articles aimed at empowering trustees, our insider gives an example of when openess could exacerbate a problem
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Features
Letter from US: University endowments setting the pace on fossil fuel divestment
US university and college endowments control more than $600bn (€517bn) of investments. Their policies often influence the behaviour of public pensions. So it is interesting to see whether Harvard’s recent decision to end its investments in fossil fuels will be followed not only by other universities but also by retirement systems.
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Features
Perspective: Songs strike a chord
A welter of recent private market deals and artists’ catalogue sales have moved music income strategies into the mainstream
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Features
Fixed income, rates, currencies: Simmering tensions bubble up
After a reasonably peaceful summer – relative to the many previous volatile ones for capital markets, that is – simmering tensions are bubbling over, affecting many financial asset classes.
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Features
Briefing: UK fiduciary management
In 2019, the UK government introduced reforms to the investment consultancy and fiduciary management sector. That followed a review by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) that identified competition problems.
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Features
Briefing: Dutch fiduciary management
A new pensions agreement between the Dutch cabinet and social partners last year requires nearly all Dutch pension funds to switch to a new defined contribution (DC) contract. It includes a lifecycle system and personal pension pots. The idea is to combine collective and individual components in one pension agreement.
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Features
Briefing: Insurance-linked securities
Hurricane Ida in late August and early September caused great damage to the southern coast of the US. Fortunately, for people in this area, insurance policies often cover destructions to their properties. Since covering such damage can lead to severe losses for insurance companies, they are keen to reinsure themselves.
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Features
Letter from Australia: Super funds: shame in a name
Named and shamed! Thirteen Australian superannuation funds have been forced to inform their million-plus members that they have failed an inaugural superannuation performance test mandated by the financial regulator, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA).
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Features
Saudi Arabia at the crossroads
As the liberal democracies of the world resign themselves to dealing with the aftermath of the US pull-out from Afghanistan, they face the fact that, as former UK prime minister Tony Blair stated recently, “despite the decline in terrorist attacks, Islamism, both the ideology and the violence, is a first-order security threat”.
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Features
Guest viewpoint: Alex Edmans
Tariq Fancy, former chief investment officer for sustainable investing at BlackRock, claimed in a March 2021 USA Today op-ed that “Wall Street is greenwashing the financial world, making sustainable investing merely PR, which is a distraction from the problem of climate change”.
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Features
Ahead of the curve: The good, the bad and the ugly of momentum investing
Last year proved a remarkable one for momentum strategies. The tech giants that had done so well in recent years continued to outperform at the beginning of 2020, and the same high momentum names were further buoyed by investors’ preference for the digital over the physical economy with the onset of COVID-19.
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Features
IPE Quest Expectations Indicator: November 2021
In Brazil, India and Japan, figures for new COVID-19 infections are low and descending. In the EU, they are low and rising, in particular in the former eastern bloc countries and areas. The US curve is going down fast from a high level. The statistics for Russia and in particular the UK are worrisome to bad. These two countries have relied on vector-based vaccines that are, on average, less effective.
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Features
Perspective: Time to weigh collective DC
The UK finally legislates for a collective alternative to pure DC. But will employers be interested?
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Features
Guest Viewpoint: The climate is ripe for change
If there is to be a successful transition to a net- zero global economy, trillions of dollars need to be invested in renewable energy generation, electricity transmission and storage systems, and energy efficiency. The need is for fresh money. At scale.
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Features
Pensions Insider: A tricky business: compensation for mismanagement
In the fourth of a series of articles aimed at empowering trustees, our insider discusses what happened in a case of fraud
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Features
Briefing: Private market fees
In today’s low-interest-rate and low-return environment, investing in private markets has become a requirement for virtually every institutional investor. Private markets are where investors can obtain the extra returns they need and can no longer earn from listed assets, thanks to the liquidity premium and higher risk/return profile of non-listed assets.
