The 300 Club, a group of investment professionals established to challenge industry behaviours, has warned that a pensions and savings crisis is approaching.
The impending crisis was being fuelled by “a general misalignment between the goals of managers themselves and that of the investors they work on behalf of,” the group said.
Combined with various other factors, this discrepancy threatened to leave many beneficiaries in a state of retirement that was barely above the poverty line unless attitudes within the investment industry changed, it added.
The warning came as the group announced it was adjusting its focus to concentrate on asset owners.
Stefan Dunatov, chairman of the 300 Club, said: “Over the past seven years, our focus at The 300 Club has been to ask uncomfortable questions about behaviours within the industry, and our latest focus is to ensure that these questions promote the interest of asset owners themselves.
“Changing economic and geopolitical circumstances combined with the looming threat of a pensions and savings crisis mean that we, as an industry, cannot afford to ignore the demands of those who at the very centre of our business.”
Dunatov is also head of investment strategy, research and risk at $145.6bn (€97bn) British Colombia Investment Management Corporation, and was formerly CIO of the UK’s Coal Pension Trustees.
The 300 Club’s membership includes PGGM’s Jaap van Dam, Amundi’s Pascal Blanqué, and CREATE-Research’s Amin Rajan, while its North American members include Ted Eliopoulos, CIO of CalPERS, and Chris Ailman, CIO of CalSTRS.
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