Liam Kennedy
Editor
Contact info
- Tel:
- +44 (0)20 3465 9300
- Email:
- liam.kennedy@ipe.com
- Opinion Pieces
Social purpose: the new dimension
Investors’ attention turned to human capital issues in 2020 as COVID-19 took hold – including the treatment of staff and other stakeholders, as well as dividend policy and executive pay in cases where companies have received taxpayer support.upport.
- Interviews
Exit Interview: Peter Borgdorff - “I wasn’t the specialist… and I think that was my advantage”
Polder in the Netherlands is the low-lying land reclaimed from the sea. By extension, it also refers to the highly developed social contract system between politics, business and labour.
- Features
Strategically Speaking: Hendrik Bartel, TruValue Labs
What makes ESG data providers stand out? For TruValue Labs, the answer is to apply AI and machine learning to thousands of unstructured data sources to enhance ESG investment processes
- News
IPE Conference Day 2: ESG asset allocation, responsible investing, corporate purpose
Timothée Jaulin (Amundi), Matthew Edwards (Willis Towers Watson), Alex Edmans (London Business School), and Fiona Stewart (World Bank) among other speakers
- News
IPE Conference Day 1: Global political risk, sustainability and resilient portfolios
Tina Fordham (Avonhurst), Elizabeth Corley (Impact Investing Institute), Amin Rajan (CREATE-Research), and Marg Franklin (CFA) among other speakers
- Opinion Pieces
Resilience: how investors can secure it
Back in March 2020 as the extent of the coronavirus in western Europe was becoming clear, Risto Murto, president and CEO of the €49bn Finnish pension insurer Varma, called for the creation of “healthcare buffers” to mitigate the effects of future pandemics.
- Features
US endowments: Success breeds success
Perhaps no single group of institutional investors elicits as much fascination and admiration as US university endowments – in particular those of the Ivy League, and among that elite group the Yale and Harvard endowments in particular.
- News
Natixis completes Ostrum restructuring in JV with La Banque Postale
Ostrum will be looking to boost ESG integration within its corporate fixed income team of around 20 analysts
- Opinion Pieces
The looming trust deficit
Once again, European pension systems – notably those of the Netherlands and Denmark – have scored most highly in this year’s Mercer CFA Pension Index. These successes are no accident, and among the key ingredients is years of pragmatic and consensual policy making.
- Special Report
Not another framework….
Inconsistencies in ESG reporting between corporates and across sectors are widely known. This patchwork quilt of reporting mirrors the array of frameworks and standards for corporate sustainability reporting.
- Opinion Pieces
Nasty problems can be overcome
The Nobel laureate Bill Sharpe once called defined contribution (DC) decumulation the “nastiest, hardest problem in finance”.
- Interviews
Strategically Speaking: Insight Investment
Insight Investment’s asset management roots are in the structural shift over the past two decades to closed-book defined benefit (DB) pensions in the UK and elsewhere.
- Opinion Pieces
A long sunset on a fragile model
The ECB’s move in September 2019 to lower rates and restart corporate bond purchases was a clear red warning signal to defined benefit pension funds and other liability-driven investors.
- Country Report
Netherlands: View from the top
Gerard van Olphen, chair of the executive board at APG, discussed the agreement with Liam Kennedy at IPE’s Summer Pension Congress
- Interviews
Strategically speaking: Saker Nusseibeh, Federated Hermes
At first sight, the two sides of Federated Hermes seem culturally distinct. Federated is a staid, family-controlled, and Pittsburgh-based money manager with a history of providing services to bank trust departments. Hardly a hotbed of ESG or shareholder engagement, you might think.
- Special Report
Top 1000 Pension Funds 2020: Europe’s €8trn pension pot
This year’s 7.25% increase in overall assets for IPE’s Top 1000 European Pension Funds 2020 sample to €8.3trn must inevitably be seen in light of 2019’s strong year for asset returns and 2020’s tumultuous COVID-19-related market crash. By comparison, the overall asset increase in 2019’s survey was 6.93%.
- Opinion Pieces
Dutch pensions: the next chapter
For those who have been following the cumbersome multi-year saga of Dutch pensions reform, the latest wrinkle might seem trivial.
- Asset Class Reports
Credit: PGGM - A partnership approach
PGGM has taken its credit-risk-sharing strategy a step further by forging a partnership with Sweden’s Alecta
- Interviews
Strategically speaking: Dimensional Fund Advisors
“Implementing the great ideas in finance for clients” is the stated mantra of Dimensional Fund Advisors’ founder and executive chairman David Booth. But at times of market stress and volatility, such as this year and in March in particular, even the most sophisticated and long-term-focused investors can question the validity of great ideas.
- Opinion Pieces
The shape of capital to come
In the Netherlands, the Afsluitdijk is a 32km by 90m dyke and causeway running between the provinces of North Holland and Friesland