All Opinion Pieces articles

View all stories of the same content type.

  • Windmills in fields in the netherlands
    Opinion Pieces

    ABP pledges €30bn for new impact investments

    2024-03-04T16:29:00Z

    Some €5bn will be invested in affordable housing projects in the Netherlands

  • Frédéric Ducoulombier at EDHEC-Risk Climate Impact Institute
    Opinion Pieces

    Viewpoint: The SEC should not diverge on Scope 3

    2024-03-01T09:00:00Z

    Reporting of value chain emissions, whether upstream such as purchased goods, or downstream – such as product use (think combustion of fossil fuels), will be abandoned

  • Lettter from the US
    Opinion Pieces

    Under the spotlight: US pension plans and their use of leverage

    March 2024 (magazine)

    Does US public pension funds’ use of borrowed money and derivatives pose systemic risks to global financial markets? That is the concern of global regulators, which have recently stepped up scrutiny of the practice, according to a recent article in the Financial Times (FT). But senior executives interviewed by IPE seem less worried.

  • Carlo
    Opinion Pieces

    Teamwork in rugby and Italian pensions

    March 2024 (magazine)

    A peculiar parallel can be drawn between the Italian second-pillar pension industry and the country’s national rugby union team and its supporters, which every year since 2000 gets excited about the Six Nations Championship.  

  • Joseph Mariathasan
    Opinion Pieces

    A thematic focus on sustainability

    March 2024 (magazine)

    The evidence for global temperatures rises caused by human emissions of greenhouse gasses (GHGs) has become overwhelming. That means there will have to be a huge adaptation by human societies across the globe to the reality of significant climate changes in the next few decades. 

  • Schmid Cornelia
    Opinion Pieces

    Pension funds’ FIDA problem must be solved

    March 2024 (magazine)

    In June 2023, the European Commission put forward the Financial Data Access (FIDA) regulation, which is currently being discussed in the relevant Council working group and in the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON). 

  • Liam Kennedy at IPE
    Opinion Pieces

    How effective is your shareholder voting strategy?

    March 2024 (magazine)

    F Scott Fitzgerald famously wrote that “the test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function”.

  • Notes from Germany
    Opinion Pieces

    Can pensions help with German skills crisis?

    March 2024 (magazine)

    German companies consider the shortage of skilled workers as one of the biggest risks for the future of their business. According to market data portal Statista, 58% of firms see the lack of qualified workers putting operations at risk in the next few months, second only to the risks posed by energy and commodity prices (61%). 

  • Letter from Australia
    Opinion Pieces

    Green champion to lead Australia’s Future Fund

    March 2024 (magazine)

    Australia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Future Fund, which was designed to cover unfunded Federal government pension liabilities, is poised to “renew and refresh”, following the appointment of Greg Combet as its new chair from mid-2024. 

  • AXA - Sustainability
    Opinion Pieces

    Viewpoint: Putting impact at the core of sustainable investment market stats

    2024-02-21T09:00:00Z

    The question of whether sustainable investments actually make a difference was one of the reasons why Eurosif revised its methodology for its market studies

  • Photo of Riccardo Rebonato, Scientific director of EDHEC-Risk Climate Impact Institute
    Opinion Pieces

    Viewpoint: Investor climate scenarios need to be probability-aware

    2024-02-09T09:00:00Z

    Riccardo Rebonato, of EDHEC-Risk Climate Impact Institute, argues that climate scenarios need to come with probabilities if they are to be useful for investors 

  • Joseph Mariathasan
    Opinion Pieces

    UK equities: stop tinkering and focus on the long term

    February 2024 (magazine)

    As the UK heads for a general election this year, both major parties (Labour and Conservative) will be proclaiming their solutions to the UK’s perennial problems of chronically low levels of investment, a dearth of new innovative companies and disappointing growth. 

  • Carlo
    Opinion Pieces

    Europe (still) needs pension capital

    February 2024 (magazine)

    The pressure on pension funds to invest in domestic assets never fades. Certain countries, notably in Northern Europe, have dealt with it better, for historical and cultural reasons. 

  • NickolaiSlavchev_color_corrections_WB (1)8c8a727911865f95d0347183d556dbbb63b1a585e7fde73db11b171380f80f65
    Opinion Pieces

    Cross-border pensions: a better taxation model

    February 2024 (magazine)

    When members of the European Union accession generation from central and eastern European (CEE) countries were young they used to dream of visiting Santa Claus in Lapland. As travel abroad was not permitted and communications were not developed, they wrote letters and waited impatiently for their presents to arrive. 

  • Letter from Australia
    Opinion Pieces

    Australian funds jostle for slice of energy transition market

    February 2024 (magazine)

    Australia’s largest integrated power generator and energy retailer, Origin, lost out on becoming a cornerstone investment in the US$15bn (€13.7bn) Brookfield Global Transition Fund after a failed A$20bn (€12.2bn) attempt by a Brookfield-led consortium to take over Origin last year.

  • Notes from the Netherlands
    Opinion Pieces

    Opponents of Dutch pension reform can’t agree

    February 2024 (magazine)

    The Dutch parliamentary elections of 22 November not only resulted in a historic victory for Geert Wilders. The record loss of the governing coalition also meant the new Pension Act no longer has majority support in parliament.  

  • Lettter from the US
    Opinion Pieces

    Guaranteed retirement income and AI: key themes for the US in 2024

    February 2024 (magazine)

    The three major 2024 trends in the US retirement industry, according to senior industry figures interviewed by IPE, are: Plan sponsors will continue to expand financial wellness programmes and explore optional provisions of the new pension law SECURE 2.0. Plan participants will up their demand for guaranteed income and ...

  • Liam Kennedy at IPE
    Opinion Pieces

    Corporate pensions: a close eye on yields in 2024

    February 2024 (magazine)

    The final two months of 2023 saw a return to form for global fixed income and equities, with respectable single and double-digit numbers in each case. After a false start in early 2023, at least for a multitude of asset forecasters, bonds were finally back in the final months of last year.

  • BEN LEACH
    Opinion Pieces

    Why DC pensions should choose private equity as first step into illiquids

    January 2024 (Magazine)

    Governments, regulators, central banks and even trustees are talking about illiquid investments and the productive economy. This is correctly driven by an underlying belief that illiquid assets can improve overall portfolio risk-adjusted returns. But most importantly, if defined contribution (DC) trustees are already keen to get behind productive finance, where do they start if they currently allocate nothing to illiquids?

  • Viewpoint January 2024
    Opinion Pieces

    Reasons to be cheerful in ESG-land

    January 2024 (Magazine)

    In 1979 Ian Dury, an influential British musician, released a song called ‘Reasons to be Cheerful, Pt 3’, which quickly became a classic. Let us consider why the world of environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing offers grounds for good cheer in the year ahead, even if it is not as rousing as the song.