Latest from IPE Magazine – Page 33
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AnalysisNet zero marks the second era of climate finance
Monica Defend, Vincent Mortier and Amin Rajan discuss progress and holdups on the global journey to net zero
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Special ReportFiduciary management special report: Has the UK peaked?
After years of growth throughout the 2010s, the number of fiduciary mandates has levelled off. Will trustees still opt for fiduciary now that insurance risk transfer is cheaper and consolidator funds have received the green light?
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AnalysisHigh stakes as pension funds take on Tesla
A group of Nordic pension funds is tentatively standing up to Elon Musk’s electric car giant, in reaction to a labour dispute at Tesla in Sweden. The strike at the end of October by 130 Tesla workers affiliated with IF Metall led to a wave of sympathy strikes which spread to Norway, Denmark and Finland.
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Opinion PiecesIBM revives defined benefit pensions in the US
This January 2024 marks an important turning point in the US retirement industry. Technology giant IBM, which has always been seen as a bellwether of American business practices, is keeping its 401(k) plan, but will stop matching contributions of up to 6%.
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Opinion PiecesLabour market evolution: the macro trend that investors cannot ignore
Macroeconomic factors can overwhelm micro ones for investors. The impact of COVID is a good example. But the short-term impact of COVID on labour markets can mask structural trends in the evolution of labour markets that have much more profound long-term impacts, according to a paper by PGIM
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InterviewsBarings: A bond investor for changing times
Martin Horne is the new global head of public assets at Barings bond investor, but he is a bond guy through and through.
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InterviewsGrégoire Haenni: How Switzerland’s CPEG is building resilience
Grégoire Haenni, CIO of CPEG, the public pension fund for the Swiss canton of Geneva, talks to Carlo Svaluto Moreolo about his views about markets and the fund’s sustainability journey
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FeaturesNet zero’s bond index problem
The fixed-income space has not been short of sustainability innovations over the years.
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Opinion PiecesAustralia's super funds strengthen their voice
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.
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Special ReportClass actions by European investors on the rise in the name of good governance and fiduciary duty
Deepwater Horizon, Volkswagen (Dieselgate), Wirecard, Silcon Valley Bank and Credit Suisse are recent, high-profile examples of corporate wrong doing resulting in losses for investors. As stewards of retirement savings and guardians of beneficiaries’ interests, it is only natural that pension funds should scrutinise the investments they are making – or outsourcing to asset managers to make – on their members’ behalf. This is a central plank of fiduciary duty.
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Country ReportNordic Region pensions funds report 2023: Norway's sovereign fund pivots north
Plans are afoot to set up a new base in northern Norway to manage sovereign wealth assets
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Special ReportProspects special report 2024: CIOs on what awaits investors
Asset management CIOs and strategists answer key questions about investment for the 12 months and beyond
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Asset Class ReportsEquities: Making sense of stock market concentration
The level of concentration within global equity markets is at record levels. This has significant implications for portfolio construction
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Special ReportEuropean pension fund class actions take off on a steep learning curve
What positive developments can we report relating to class actions in UK and European pension funds? What regulatory challenges still need to be overcome to facilitate (for instance, simplify) the environment for class action by UK and European institutions? Where are the key gaps in knowledge among pension funds?
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Country ReportSweden’s ethics body boosts engagement efforts
After a major review, the AP fund’s Council on Ethics has expanded its team and resources to give it more heft
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Asset Class ReportsAI: Moving from innovation to early adoption
Generative artificial intelligence (AI) capable of generating text, images and even music has stepped into the limelight after decades in the making. It will eventually have an impact across most industries, comparable to the impact of the internet. But while the world may have reached an inflection point in the usage of generative AI, a lot needs to happen before companies are positioned to take full advantage of the developments in large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT.
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Special ReportClass actions: Is Europe catching up with the US?
Europe’s institutional investors are latching on to the rewards of joining class actions against investee companies. Many of these are securities lawsuits, pursued when a publicly listed company has not properly disclosed or has misrepresented significant information, affecting the share price when the truth emerges. But so far, the vast majority of these have been in the US. In 2022, nearly $4.9bn (€4.6bn) was recovered in the US courts, according to Institutional Shareholder Services. So, what about class actions in Europe? “The US has had a class action system for over a hundred years that can be adopted for almost every cause of action, whereas the UK has only had class actions since 2015 and it is only available for competition cases,” says Harry McGowan, partner in the securities litigation department at law firm Stewarts.
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Country ReportSwedish Fund Selection Agency ramps up procurement
As the first round of tenders for the country’s new premium pension system comes to a close, agency is preparing for the next ones
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Asset Class ReportsJapanese stock market finally lives up to expectations
Stocks rally, helped by rising inflation and corporate governance reforms
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Special ReportShareholder class actions in Europe: the benefits and risks of participating
Litigation outside the United States, and in particular in Europe, has been on the rise since the US Supreme Court’s landmark 2010 decision in Morrison v. National Australia Bank. In Morrison, the US Supreme Court ruled that “foreign” (non-US) investors cannot bring federal securities lawsuits in US courts to recover investment losses relating to foreign-issued securities traded on foreign exchanges (known as “F-cubed” claims). As former Justice Antonin Scalia explained, the concern was to prevent the US from becoming “the Shangri-La” of class-action litigation for lawyers representing those allegedly cheated in foreign securities markets. Although federal courts have since struggled to apply Morrison’s effect test consistently, it is clear, more than 10 years later, that the decision has had its intended effect.
