All Features articles – Page 12
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FeaturesDefining the precise scale advantages for DB pension funds
Most people working in the institutional asset management space have an intuitive understanding that the size of the institution, measured by total assets under management (AUM), has an impact on performance – that bigger funds tend to perform slightly better. On the other hand, there are plenty of stories of successful hedge funds that got too large and lost their way, unable to continue delivering on past success due to their size. So which is it? Do larger institutional investors outperform their smaller kin, or is AUM the proverbial millstone in terms of performance?
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Features
Qontigo Riskwatch: April 2022
* Data as of 28 February 2022. Forecast risk estimate for each index measured by the respective US, World and Emerging Markets Qontigo model variants
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Features
IPE Quest Expectations Indicator commentary April 2022
With a threat of nuclear war looming, Russia increasingly looking exhausted and desperate but unwilling to make concessions and a Russian default threatening, the world is again as dangerous as it was during the cold war. A default now cannot be compared with Russia’s de facto default in 1998.
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FeaturesAccounting: IASB grapples with IAS 19
The staff could hardly have been more blunt: “Overall, we received mixed feedback on our IAS 19 [International Accounting Standard 19] proposal,” they told the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) in March. The proposal in question is a March 2021 exposure draft in which the IASB trialled a new approach to disclosure by focusing on objectives aimed at teasing out relevant information.
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FeaturesPerspective – Liability-driven investing: DIY LDI
A multi-decade trend of falling interest rates, the increased complexity of financial markets and the growing burden of regulation have conspired to turn pension provision into an extremely sophisticated activity. This is especially true for defined benefit pension funds, which may be facing a gradual decline in number, but remain a key source of retirement income.
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FeaturesStrategically speaking – WTW: Democratising private markets
WTW’s ill-fated merger with Aon, announced at the outset of the pandemic in early March 2020, would have shaken up the corporate insurance brokerage market. It would also have created an outsourced CIO (OCIO) giant to compete with Mercer in terms of delegated assets under management (AUM).
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FeaturesBriefing: High yield off to a rough start to the year
High yield did not have a good start to the year. Rising inflation and a more hawkish central bank tone in the US and UK triggered panic selling in January. However, as the dust settles and bad news is priced in, the asset class looks more appealing than other fixed-income segments. Easy pickings may be gone, though, and opportunities will have to be selected carefully.
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FeaturesBriefing: Now is not the time to give up on emerging markets
“Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!” This classic Al Pacino line has applied to many emerging market investors in recent years. Like Michael Corleone, drawn by the potential offered by bold business opportunities, they have accepted to take higher levels of risks in a quest to obtain better results. However, similarly to the family at the heart of The Godfather saga, the outcome of such bets has often caused a lot of pain.
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Features
Case study – SPH: How to embed behavioural insights in managing a pension fund
In the Netherlands, pension reforms are slowly picking up steam. Long overdue and in many respects a sensible direction, pension boards can choose between variants that redistribute investment risk between individual participants and the collective pension scheme.
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FeaturesFixed income, rates, currencies: Inflation spotlight on central banks
Not often far from the action, central banks have been centre stage in 2022 as one after another in the developed markets reveal their hawkish intents. The speed and synchronicity with which they have shifted has been pretty remarkable, with only the Bank of Japan not yet joining other main central banks.
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FeaturesAhead of the curve – Late-stage growth: a growing priority in PE portfolios
With additional options to fund growth outside of an initial public offering (IPO), start-ups are staying private longer. The average age at which venture capital-backed companies go public has increased from about 4.5 years during the 1990s to about 6.5 years today.
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FeaturesAccounting: DB sponsors at a crossroads
If a decade ago the talk was of defined-benefit (DB) scheme sponsors locked in an infernal struggle against the dizzying gravity of spiralling accounting deficits, thoughts now are turning to the end game.
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FeaturesQontigo Riskwatch – March 2022
* Data as of 31 January 2022. Forecast risk estimate for each index measured by the respective US, World and Emerging Markets Qontigo model variants
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FeaturesIPE Quest Expectations Indicator – March 2022
Political risk is back. Russian aggression towards Ukraine inserts considerable amounts of uncertainty. Asset owners will in general not suffer significant direct consequences for a well-diversified portfolio, but there are potential implications for energy prices that come at a time when inflation was already making a comeback and on top of unexpected military expenditure when budgets are already charged by COVID-19-related outlays
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FeaturesJoseph Mariathasan: India’s NPS reaches $100bn in assets
India’s state-run voluntary defined contribution New Pension Scheme (NPS) has reached a milestone of $100bn (€88bn) in assets and is likely to double in size every five years, according to renowned economist Ajay Shah. There are many lessons to be learnt from the success of the NPS, particularly for developing countries seeking to create pension safety nets for their populations from scratch.
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FeaturesStrategically speaking: Eyes on the next frontier
“Riddle me this,” asks Yves Choueifaty, founder, president and CIO of French asset manager TOBAM. “Why would 70 people who are not TOBAM employees be at our Paris headquarters today?”
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FeaturesPerspective: La dolce pensione
Italy may be on the verge of overhauling its pension system, but there are signs the reform project lacks ambition
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FeaturesFixed income, rates, currencies: COVID starts to lose grip on GDP
COVID’s huge influence on all our lives, whether through disruption of global supply chains or threats of lockdowns in the face of soaring infection rates, was reasonably constant throughout 2021. However, it now appears that GDP numbers have become generally less sensitive to COVID infection rates than they were, say, 18 months ago, with high vaccination rates (certainly across developed markets), and an awareness from politicians that the public’s willingness to comply with lockdowns may be waning fast.
