All Special Report articles – Page 25
-
Special ReportEmerging market equities – a changing landscape worth revisiting
Emerging market (EM) equities form an important part of many European pension fund growth portfolios today. Investors are keen to capture excess returns on offer thanks to EMs’ risk premium over developed markets, as well as the diversification benefits they can bring to portfolios; these characteristics have been helpful for many of Europe’s DB and DC schemes.
-
Special ReportThe heat is on: exploring the role of investors in slowing down climate change
While the Covid-19 crisis this year has had a devastating effect on society and global economies, it has had a positive impact on carbon emissions and has shown us all that it is possible to reduce our carbon emissions drastically. The goal now is to find a happy balance as we reignite global economies. Governments cannot drive progress on their own. So how can the investment industry play its part?
-
Special ReportETFs rise to the challenge
Exchange-traded funds and products (ETFs and ETPs) have been one of the biggest investment success stories in recent years. Their stunning popularity meant that, despite the shock of COVID-19, they had taken in US$294bn (€247bn) over the six months to end-June 2020, compared with US$210bn over the same period last year.
-
Special ReportLow carbon ETFs: exclusion versus tilting
The rise in investor awareness of climate risks and the increased allocation to passive strategies is set to continue. Tilting is becoming an alternative or complementary approach to traditional exclusion approaches to reducing carbon exposure.
-
Special ReportAre too many products spoiling the ETF broth?
ETFs have been one of the finance industry’s great successes over the past three decades. With over 8,000 ETFs listed globally, the sector offers highly competitive fees and diversity of product, or so it is assumed.
-
Special ReportBright future for ETFs in pension funds’ portfolios
Despite the phenomenal rise in ETF adoption over the past few years, they still account for a relatively small portion of pension funds’ portfolios. As a recent survey by TrackInsight confirms, ETFs have room to grow with these institutional investors as they fit well with the dual nature of their mandate: meeting short-term liabilities while maximising long-term returns.
-
Special ReportESG ETFs: northern lights blaze a trail
When the two mainstays of the Finnish earnings-related pension system decided to re-weight their vast passive equity exposure to reflect their environmental, social and governance (ESG) priorities, both found that, despite the plethora of ETFs now available, none met their precise needs.
-
Special ReportBond ETFs come of age
In a situation as destructive as a global pandemic is it is difficult to find many winners. Hundreds of thousands of lives have been lost and economies have been brought to the brink – and we may still only be at the start of the saga.
-
Special ReportActive ETFs: the transparency conundrum
Since the first exchange-traded funds (ETFs) were launched in the early 1990s, they have had a huge impact on the asset management industry, pushing down costs and challenging the dominance of active managers.
-
Special ReportThe case for active ETFs
Each day, more and more institutional investors are discovering how exchange-traded funds (ETFs) can enable them to make trades conveniently, access markets flexibly, diversify portfolios broadly, and manage fees and taxes efficiently.
-
Special ReportGetting active on stewardship
Providers of passive products like ETFs are no longer passive when it comes to stewardship. In active investment circles, stewardship has always sat naturally beside active stock selection as a way for portfolio managers to add value. That has not been the case on the passive side, where the focus has traditionally been on technical aspects of tracking indices, such as minimising tracking difference, to deliver for investors in terms of relative performance.
-
Special ReportValue and Costs: UK workplace pensions – measuring the unmeasurable?
The UK’s FCA is seeking feedback from the financial services industry on its plans to work out a definition of value for money
-
Special ReportValue and Costs: PE gears up for more transparency calls
Private equity is expecting further demand from investors for increased reporting and is checking the maths
-
Special ReportSwitzerland: Little by little
A first round of consultations on the second pillar, together with a reform of the third pillar, point to potentially bigger changes ahead
-
Special ReportItaly: Pandemic paves the way for the next phase of reform
Italian policymakers will be under pressure to upgrade the three-pillar pension system over the coming years
-
Special ReportSweden: Refining the new IORP II regime
Sweden adds extra elements to its IORP II implementation and transitional measures to address the fall in asset values resulting from COVID-19
-
Special ReportGermany: Saving occupational pension schemes
The second pillar is being targeted with a series of regulatory and political measures to keep it intact
-
Special ReportIceland: Focus turns to the homefront
Pensions funds heed a call by the government to concentrate on domestic investment to boost the economy
-
Special ReportFrance: Reforms freeze in face of pandemic
Economic damage inflicted by COVID-19 halts plans to unify France’s 42 second-pillar schemes
-
Special ReportEU sustainable finance: Impact uncertain
New EU climate benchmarks are getting industry take-up but not everyone is embracing them
