IPE’s columnists and guest writers dig into the hot topics for the pensions and investment industries with thoughtful commentary and reaction from around the world
Irish citizens are set to get a retirement boost following the government’s decision to implement its auto-enrolment retirement savings scheme in 2024. That is, if all goes to plan. Under the proposed scheme, which has been a topic of debate in Irish politics for at least 15 years, employees will have access to a workplace pension savings scheme that is co-funded by their employer and the state.
Ireland stands a few policy steps away from the creation of a serious first and second-pillar pensions architecture that will improve the country’s international standing in terms of retirement provision.
The private markets industry is feeling the pinch. Private equity managers, in particular, are having a hard time raising capital and exiting investments. There are also questions about returns from recent vintages, as businesses struggle with inflation and a choppier trading environment. Meanwhile, private credit managers are pushing back loan repayments to safeguard returns as higher interest rates reduce borrowers’ ability to fulfil their obligations.
Right now, Alecta cuts a strange figure – one of Europe’s biggest pensions institutions wounded after gaping investment losses, and sustaining still worse injuries from the monopolistic hubris it leaves in its wake.
By 2063, Australia’s relatively youthful treasurer, Jim Chalmers, will be 85 years old and likely well into retirement.
Pension funds, university endowments, insurance funds, and other institutional investors have long called for more transparency about their investments in private equity and hedge funds.
This is a great book for anybody who would like to understand the causes and dynamics of financial crises. The author delivers deep insights into systemic financial risks for our economies, and why risk management tools and regulations fail when it matters most. The text is written in conversational style, full of anecdotes, wisdoms and polemics, which makes reading a pleasure even for the non-expert. To be recommended not only for risk managers but also for investment directors and trustees.
Amin Rajan speaks to Pascal Blanqué about his latest book
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A change in the consensus around the role of offsetting to achieve net zero was one consideration, explains UK master trust Cushon’s director of policy and research
Frédéric Ducoulombier, of EDHEC-Risk Climate Impact Institute, says the ISSB chair straw-mans the positions of advocates of the EU ESRS’s double materiality
OCIO is a trend being encouraged by market volatility, increased portfolio intricacy, and the growing burden of regulatory compliance
One of the most pressing questions facing today’s climate research is whether climate change risks are reflected in stock prices. In a peer-reviewed study* recently accepted for publication in Journal of Banking and Finance, we found that investors only care about climate change risks when policymakers intervene, not about physical climate risks.
With billions of dollars flowing into its treasury each year, Australia’s largest industry super fund, AustralianSuper, is finding that it is rapidly outgrowing its own backyard.
Private credit has been one of the fastest growing asset classes in the institutional world over the past several years, according to Catherine Beard, senior vice-president in consultancy Callan’s alternatives group.
It is often assumed that the upcoming pension reform in the Netherlands will lead pension funds to increase their allocations to alternative assets as their policy priorities will move from protecting their funding ratios to providing indexation for their members.
When Norway’s sovereign wealth fund announced in September it was shutting down its only office in China, the move was bound to be seen as symbolic of the deteriorating relationship between China and the US and its allies. It also came at a low-point for investment in China, with foreigners having sold off a record CNY90bn (€11.5bn) of Chinese stocks in August, amid fears over China’s tensions with the West, its property crisis and weak post-COVID economic recovery.
Time and again we are reminded that the sole focus of pension funds should be on paying pensions. However, as stewards of capital, and because of their irreplaceable social function, they can aspire to be something greater than that. One outcome of pension funds’ decisions that is well within reach is positive technological innovation, including within the field of artificial intelligence (AI).
The UK’s so-called Mansion House Reforms are under way. This cluster of policies takes its name from the residence of the Lord Mayor of the City of London, which is the venue for a regular set-piece policy speech by British chancellors of the exchequer, the latest of whom is Jeremy Hunt.