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Opinion PiecesNotes from the Netherlands: It’s the implementation, stupid
The Dutch pensions regulator, DNB, praised pension funds in a recent report for having better structures in place to manage their exposure to climate risk than banks and insurance firms. But as always, the devil is in the detail.
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Opinion Pieces
Lacklustre pensions in an innovative CEE region
Capital funded pension systems across the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) countries have suffered from poor policy decisions over the years. These have included suspensions or reductions to contributions and even transfers of assets from individual accounts to the state.
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Opinion Pieces
News Notes: PEPP cap elicits muted response
The date for authorisation for the so-called Pan-European personal pension product (PEPP) is fast approaching – 22 March 2022 – and yet the European pensions market seems to be relatively quiet about it.
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Opinion Pieces
Solving the blended finance puzzle
It is hard to say whether Friedrich Nietzsche, one of history’s most influential thinkers, would have been a supporter of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and all that they entail.
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Opinion Pieces
Viewpoint: Three high yield myths debunked
Default, convexity and liquidity – three misconceptions of high yield markets
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Opinion Pieces
Viewpoint: Do your best to heed SFDR RTS despite delay, complexity
The SFDR represents a steep learning curve for most firms, says MJ Hudson’s Emma Bickerstaffe
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Opinion Pieces
Viewpoint: Master trust consolidation set to drive value for money
Bigger is not always better, but as the trend of wider consolidation matures, bigger should represent a better deal for members
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Opinion Pieces
Viewpoint: EU must not become climate laggard over taxonomy
Andreas Hoepner criticises a proposal to raise the taxonomy-admissibility threshold for natural gas to 270gms CO2 e/kWh
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Opinion Pieces
Notes from the Netherlands: Too eager to index
Most Dutch pensioners have been craving indexation ever since the financial crisis in 2008-09. Understandably, patience is running thin, especially now that inflation has reached its highest level since the introduction of the euro.
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Opinion Pieces
No right side to the inflation debate
The question of whether the current trend of rising inflation is a transitory or permanent one is not trivial. It is forcing the institutional investor community to reflect on their long-term investment strategies. Investors have to review their current approaches and get ready to make significant changes if their views prove incorrect.
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Opinion Pieces
News Notes: Economies of cost saving
The three main reasons the UK government requested that the country’s 89 Local Government Pension Schemes (LGPS) pool their assets back in 2015 were: establishing common investment vehicles to provide the pension funds with a mechanism to access economies of scale; helping them to invest more efficiently in listed and alternative assets; and reducing investment costs.
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Opinion Pieces
Getting ahead of the skill curve
Twenty years ago, in December 2001, Denmark’s giant labour market pension fund ATP implemented an interest-rate swap. That doesn’t seem too shocking now as liability-driven investment (LDI) is a mature and well-understood concept that is embedded in pension risk-management and regulatory practice.
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Opinion Pieces
Viewpoint: How has the pandemic affected the UK – small-cap value investing
By Beini Zhou and Anand Vasagiri, portfolio managers, international small-cap value strategy, Artisan Partners
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Opinion Pieces
Viewpoint: What pension schemes should consider when upping renewables
Renewity’s CIO, David Hunter, outlines five considerations for pension schemes looking to up their renewables exposure
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Opinion Pieces
Viewpoint: What if COP26 fails?
Peter Kraneveld, international pensions adviser at PRIME bv., on finance issues and COP26
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Opinion Pieces
Notes from Germany: Parties mull pensions
It all started with a selfie posted on social media. The leaders of the Green party Annalena Baerbock, candidate to be chancellor, and Robert Habeck posed with the Free Democrats’ Christian Lindner and Volker Wissing to show how serious they were to bridge the divide to form a new government coalition, prior to meeting with the winner of the election, the SDP’s Olaf Scholz.
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Opinion Pieces
Co-investment newcomers need to be selective
The US and UK are seeing a diminishing number of companies in the listed markets whilst the private equity (PE) markets are booming. For investors, that raises a number of issues, of which fees are an important one. Private equity fees are much higher than those of listed equity managers.
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Opinion Pieces
Green bonds – a ‘no-brainer’ paragon
Institutional investors are constantly searching for the elusive ‘no-brainer’ investment: the one that offers clear additional benefits without additional risk
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Opinion Pieces
Engagement, divestment and emerging alternatives
Investment analysts make contrasting buy and sell recommendations for individual securities based on identical financial information – down to the last decimal point. The differential is judgement.
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Opinion Pieces
Viewpoint: Why we need deforestation-free portfolios by 2025
‘If we are to address climate change, we need to put an end to deforestation’
