All articles by Liam Kennedy
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Opinion PiecesChannelling domestic investment bias in a smarter way
Governments have long orchestrated domestic institutional investor home bias, particularly by drawing investment boundaries to ensure large allocations to domestic assets.
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Opinion PiecesSweden’s stockmarket star shines for Europe
If trade wars and the decline of the dollar against the euro hadn’t already spooked them enough this year, European investment committees might be forgiven for worrying about the sector concentration of their portfolios after the equity market rally since the spring.
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InterviewsColler Pensions Institute on a mission to educate developing countries on pensions and savings
David Pinkus and Fiona Reynolds of Coller Pensions Institute tell Liam Kennedy about their plans to foster a pensions and savings culture in emerging and developing countries
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InterviewsAmundi deputy CEO Jean-Jacques Barbéris outlines the firm's institutional pipeline
Amundi’s Jean-Jacques Barbéris tells Liam Kennedy about opportunities in liquid markets and ESG staying power
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Opinion PiecesEurope’s nasty pension tax dilemma
The Nobel Prize-winning economist Bill Sharpe famously once said that retirement drawdown is the “hardest, nastiest problem in finance”. In EU politics, the same thing could pretty much be said about taxation.
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Asset Class ReportsTrade finance: From ‘just in time’ to ‘just in case’
A new joint venture tradeco between Pemberton and Santander aims to give investors access to working capital strategies, and to add a new tech-driven dimension to the age-old business of inventory financing
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InterviewsSystematica Investments CEO Leda Braga on the hedge fund's strategy
‘Ten years ago, we were the nerds, the geeks, and nobody was interested’
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Country ReportRailpen CEO on board for member focus
New CEO’s sights are trained on member outcomes as the organisation looks ahead to a simpler rail sector under public ownership
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Opinion PiecesDomestic investment bias is back: sow’s ear or silk purse?
Pension funds now have a very large dollop of geopolitical risk to contend with at a time when many are under some degree of pressure, overt or otherwise, to invest more domestically.
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NewsUK’s PPF to invest £1bn in infrastructure
DB protection fund will assess quality UK and global opportunities in line with fiduciary duty
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Opinion PiecesDenmark’s pension funds offer a template for an innovative defence investments play
The tone of Europe’s political debate on defence expenditure has shifted markedly this year. And as former Netherlands defence minister Kajsa Ollongren, put it in a Chatham House Q&A in early March: “The mindset should be ‘war economy’.”
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InterviewsDaniel Gamba, NTAM: Scaling the heights of asset management
Daniel Gamba, president of Northern Trust Asset Management (NTAM), is sketching out a future for his business involving the mass customisation of products for clients and leveraging important client relationships to act as a key partner.
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Opinion PiecesA bulwark against pensions populism
Increased longevity and declining birthrates are societal trends that can be experienced in insidious ways. It’s harder to get a doctor’s appointment or a diagnostic healthcare test. Schools are downsizing and closing.
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InterviewsLeapFrog eyes global impact investment opportunities
Impact investing was once a niche concept. “We were seen as the weird people in the corner of the room,” recalls Andy Kuper, the South African founder and CEO of LeapFrog Investments
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Opinion PiecesPreparedness: a new asset class?
Wars are famously costly. Most people would agree that preventing them is infinitely preferable to paying for them.
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Opinion PiecesIs it time to add a new layer to strategic asset allocation?
For years, strategic asset allocation (SAA) has been a cornerstone of investment for pension funds and other institutional investors. Is sustainability a missing ingredient?
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Opinion PiecesThe EU needs a few more AP7s
Europe sure does not have a savings problem – EU household savings amounted to €1.4trn in 2022 versus €840bn in the US. What Europe does have, though, is a glut of bank savings capital that serves as a double bind.
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InterviewsHSBC Asset Management puts team culture at the fore in growth strategy
It’s often said that timing is everything. Nicolas Moreau sees an element of luck in the timing of his appointment to the helm of HSBC Asset Management in September 2019. This gave him a six-month head start in his role as CEO by the time the COVID pandemic arrived in early 2020.
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Opinion PiecesWhy we need to talk about the birthrate
If you live in a big city like London, and if you look hard enough, you are sure to find signs of a falling birthrate.
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Special ReportTop 1000 Pension Funds 2024: Pensions back at a sweet spot
Assets for the leading 1000 European pension funds grew by 8.7% year-on-year, reversing last year’s loss of 6.8%. This brings total assets back up to above their previous high water mark of €9.7trn in 2022’s research exercise. This year’s overall net gain in assets of €775bn is the largest since 2021’s increase of €810bn.
