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People moves: Former NEST chief joins Standard Life Master Trust board
Plus: Royal London restructures global equity team
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Germany’s BVK redefines macro allocations in new investment strategy
As part of its its strategic asset allocation, the fund plans to invest in timber looking at ‘evergreen structures’
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UK equity disclosure enforcement could contradict Value for Money framework
SPP questions whether pension funds should invest in British businesses when knowing that such investment may produce worse returns than investing overseas
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CBI, CSSF finalise yield buffer rules for sterling LDI funds
Measures complement guidance issued by UK regulators in wake of UK LDI crisis
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German finance ministry ups maximum interest rate
The rate, used to calculate the amount of reserve funds for pension payouts, is increasing to 1% from the current 0.25%, from 2025 – the first increase in 30 years
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Is buyout still the gold standard for UK pension funds?
Improved funding positions mean more DB schemes are considering run-on rather than off-loading their liabilities
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Enrico Letta’s European 401(k) policy is ambitious but necessary
Enrico Letta’s long-awaited review of the EU single market (Much More than a Market), reached inboxes last month. Among a sweeping range of measures, Letta advocates an ambitious system, akin to the 401(k) in the US, with an EU-wide auto-enrolment long-term savings policy as part of a proposed Savings and Investment Union.
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Bond markets look set to become the new stewardship powerbroking arena
Investors in bond markets are starting to assume a more powerful position than equity investors to influence companies and countries. Innovation is sweeping through bond markets with the introduction of specific ‘use of proceeds’ bonds and sustainability-linked bonds.
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Defence is the new ESG question
Earlier this year, the European Commission launched its ambitious European Defence Industrial Strategy (EDIS). The main goals of the strategy are reducing fragmentation within the €70bn European defence industry and lowering weapons imports, thus increasing the EU’s military readiness. The success of the strategy would also contribute to economic growth.
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Time is running out for Germany's planned pension reforms
The German government is in the final stretches of an ambitious but tortuous journey to reform the three pillars of the pension system.
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Small island states turn to institutional investors to protect oceans
Small island developing states may have a total population of only around 65 million, but through their exclusive economic zones they control about 30% of oceans and seas, according to the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD).
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US public pension funds focus on labour practices in private equity
Private equity has become dependent on public pension funds, which represent almost one-third of all investors in the asset class. These schemes invested 13% of their assets – over $620bn (€580bn) in 2022 – up from 3.5% in 2001 and 8.3% in 2011, according to data from public pension research non-profit Equable Institute.
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Australia faces up to the cost of pandemic pension early release
Four years after Australians were allowed to withdraw superannuation savings to deal with the economic shock of the COVID-19 pandemic, they now know emergency measures will cost the nation A$85bn (€51bn) in future pension payments.
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Young pension employees clamour for learning and interaction
Many young professionals are deterred from pursuing careers in pensions due to insufficient knowledge and a perceived lack of career progression
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The importance of board decisions in an uncertain world
In the foreword to this new book, the CIO of CERN Pension Fund, Dr Elena Manola-Bonthond, says that, in her experience, investment alpha is scarce and very often difficult to access. It can be costly and its persistence is sometimes questionable. But there are other types of alpha that are more accessible and governance alpha is definitely one of them.
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Striking the right balance on pension funds and fiduciary duty
Pension fund investment principles, strategies and decision-making have all become more complex in the wake of the growth of sustainability factors in general and climate change in particular. This has made the interpretation and practice of trustee ‘fiduciary duties’ more vexed and challenging than ever. A recent review of fiduciary duties in the UK by the Financial Markets Law Committee (FMLC) put it this way: “It is sometimes easier to state the duties than it is to apply them.”
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Merseyside pension fund dials down domestic bias
Scheme’s strategic ambition is to move closer to the MSCI World index weightings
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Sweden’s AP3 pension fund and its quest for alpha
Jonas Thulin, recently appointed CIO of Sweden’s Tredje AP-Fonden (AP3), talks to Carlo Svaluto Moreolo about his approach to asset allocation and portfolio management
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Progress report on the UK’s Mansion House capital market reforms
Details of potential changes to the UK’s pension landscape have been thin on the ground
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How consolidation might affect the UK’s local government pension sector
There is political consensus on the need for local government pension schemes to merge, but the question of in-house asset management is less straightforward