Latest Special Reports

  • Forest
    Special Report

    Natural capital special report: Getting to grips with the TNFD

    March 2024 (magazine)

    More than 100 financial institutions have formally committed to adopting the recommendations of the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures. Here’s how some of them are getting on so far

  • Jenn-Hui Tann, Fidelity
    Special Report

    AGM season preview: nature at the ballot box

    March 2024 (magazine)

    Despite the backlash against ESG, biodiversity risks will be on the agenda during the next round of shareholder meetings

  • skedsmo  arild
    Special Report

    Investors engage with corporates on nature issues

    March 2024 (magazine)

    Shareholders are ramping up their stewardship efforts on key topics like deforestation and biodiversity

  • Arend Kulenkampff
    Special Report

    Biodiversity: bridging policy and finance

    March 2024 (magazine)

    Governments and pension funds can leverage new capital markets instruments to meet the twin challenges of biodiversity loss and climate change 

  • Money Alex
    Special Report

    New regulations tackle water insecurity

    March 2024 (magazine)

    The new European Sustainability Reporting Standards’ E3 tackles the complex and diverse realm of water insecurity

  • Imogen-Cothay
    Special Report

    Risk transfer special report: Pension liabilities shift to insurers

    February 2024 (magazine)

    New players are waiting to enter the UK pension risk transfer market but this will depend on how accommodating Solvency UK will be

  • ThomasBloch31fae9c333aa7eb78ffbadc1cfb50984ad6d5e0c0d11ecfc8245dc0ae45e3ef8
    Special Report

    AllianzGI partners with DBR to offer pension risk transfer

    February 2024 (magazine)

    A new joint venture allows corporates to offload pension obligations to an innovative corporate structure

  • Fiduciary Management (NEW)
    Special Report

    Fiduciary management special report: Has the UK peaked?

    January 2024 (Magazine)

    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?  

  • Market prediction
    Special Report

    Prospects special report 2024: CIOs on what awaits investors

    December 2023 (Magazine)

    Asset management CIOs and strategists answer key questions about investment for the 12 months and beyond 

  • IPE Dec 2023 Class Actions supplement cover
    Special Report

    Class actions by European investors on the rise in the name of good governance and fiduciary duty

    December 2023 (Magazine)

    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. 

  • dreamstime_l_13015087
    Special Report

    European pension fund class actions take off on a steep learning curve

    December 2023 (Magazine)

    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?

  • 12.23 IPE Class Action Overview GM Solomon
    Special Report

    Class actions: Is Europe catching up with the US?

    December 2023 (Magazine)

    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. 

  • 12.23 IPE Class Action Case Study Colorado Fire and Police Lindahl
    Special Report

    Shareholder class actions in Europe: the benefits and risks of participating

    December 2023 (Magazine)

    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. 

  • dreamstime_m_73186983
    Special Report

    USS settlement with Petrobras and PWC Brazilian subsidiary

    December 2023 (Magazine)

    In February 2018, the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) reached a settlement with PWC’s Brazilian subsidiary as part of a class action lawsuit against Petrobras.

  • dreamstime_s_247404103
    Special Report

    AP7 notches up legal success against Kraft Heinz

    December 2023 (Magazine)

    In May 2023, Sweden’s AP7 fund recorded a significant victory for Swedish and other investors when US food giant Kraft Heinz agreed to settle a class action lawsuit for $450m (€421m).

  • dreamstime_s_172747142
    Special Report

    Colorado fire and police settle with Cognizant

    December 2023 (Magazine)

    In August 2021, Fire and Police Pension Association Colorado (FPPA), alongside other plaintiffs, reached a settlement with Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation for $95m (€88.7m).

  • 12.23 IPE Class action CM lessons learned SUMMERFIELD
    Special Report

    Building a class action toolbox for investors

    December 2023 (Magazine)

    As class actions have started to play an increasingly important role in good governance for UK and European pensions funds, the need to establish best practice in the field is growing.

  • dreamstime_m_41906563
    Special Report

    Managing risk in securities class actions

    December 2023 (Magazine)

    Securities class actions (SCA) are a form of collective redress. Shareholders seek compensation for losses suffered as a result of some form of corporate misconduct. They rely upon free market forces, its rules, regulations and factors affecting market price. For professional shareholders such as institutional investors, it is best to look upon any involvement with SCAs as another form of investment yielding a potentially, significant return in future. The duties of any institutional investor – whether as a fiduciary or otherwise – is to focus on what is in the best interests of the fund and its beneficiaries. It does not require the expenditure of more money (or the value of management time) than is likely to be received. What is necessary is the consideration of the issues and the management of risks.

  • dreamstime_l_190604621
    Special Report

    Double-edged benefits of litigation financing

    December 2023 (Magazine)

    European pension funds have become familiar with class action litigation, often tying it in with their fiduciary responsibilities as shareholders. Cases against UBS regarding its takeover of Credit Suisse; EY as auditor of fraudulent German payments firm, Wirecard; and Silicon Valley Bank, which collapsed in March, are the headliners of 2023.

  • ESG supplement IPE November 2023
    Special Report

    ESG Guide 2023: The future of sustainable finance

    November 2023 (Magazine)

    With or without the backlash against ESG in the US, big questions have been looming over the sustainable finance industry – like ‘is sustainable finance working?’.