All Special Report articles – Page 5
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Special Report
Double-edged benefits of litigation financing
European pension funds have become familiar with class action litigation, often tying it in with their fiduciary responsibilities as shareholders. Cases against UBS regarding its takeover of Credit Suisse; EY as auditor of fraudulent German payments firm, Wirecard; and Silicon Valley Bank, which collapsed in March, are the headliners of 2023.
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Special Report
Class actions by European investors on the rise in the name of good governance and fiduciary duty
Deepwater Horizon, Volkswagen (Dieselgate), Wirecard, Silcon Valley Bank and Credit Suisse are recent, high-profile examples of corporate wrong doing resulting in losses for investors. As stewards of retirement savings and guardians of beneficiaries’ interests, it is only natural that pension funds should scrutinise the investments they are making – or outsourcing to asset managers to make – on their members’ behalf. This is a central plank of fiduciary duty.
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Special Report
European pension fund class actions take off on a steep learning curve
What positive developments can we report relating to class actions in UK and European pension funds? What regulatory challenges still need to be overcome to facilitate (for instance, simplify) the environment for class action by UK and European institutions? Where are the key gaps in knowledge among pension funds?
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Special Report
Class actions: Is Europe catching up with the US?
Europe’s institutional investors are latching on to the rewards of joining class actions against investee companies. Many of these are securities lawsuits, pursued when a publicly listed company has not properly disclosed or has misrepresented significant information, affecting the share price when the truth emerges. But so far, the vast majority of these have been in the US. In 2022, nearly $4.9bn (€4.6bn) was recovered in the US courts, according to Institutional Shareholder Services. So, what about class actions in Europe? “The US has had a class action system for over a hundred years that can be adopted for almost every cause of action, whereas the UK has only had class actions since 2015 and it is only available for competition cases,” says Harry McGowan, partner in the securities litigation department at law firm Stewarts.
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Special Report
Shareholder class actions in Europe: the benefits and risks of participating
Litigation outside the United States, and in particular in Europe, has been on the rise since the US Supreme Court’s landmark 2010 decision in Morrison v. National Australia Bank. In Morrison, the US Supreme Court ruled that “foreign” (non-US) investors cannot bring federal securities lawsuits in US courts to recover investment losses relating to foreign-issued securities traded on foreign exchanges (known as “F-cubed” claims). As former Justice Antonin Scalia explained, the concern was to prevent the US from becoming “the Shangri-La” of class-action litigation for lawyers representing those allegedly cheated in foreign securities markets. Although federal courts have since struggled to apply Morrison’s effect test consistently, it is clear, more than 10 years later, that the decision has had its intended effect.
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Special Report
Managing risk in securities class actions
Securities class actions (SCA) are a form of collective redress. Shareholders seek compensation for losses suffered as a result of some form of corporate misconduct. They rely upon free market forces, its rules, regulations and factors affecting market price. For professional shareholders such as institutional investors, it is best to look upon any involvement with SCAs as another form of investment yielding a potentially, significant return in future. The duties of any institutional investor – whether as a fiduciary or otherwise – is to focus on what is in the best interests of the fund and its beneficiaries. It does not require the expenditure of more money (or the value of management time) than is likely to be received. What is necessary is the consideration of the issues and the management of risks.
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Special Report
Building a class action toolbox for investors
As class actions have started to play an increasingly important role in good governance for UK and European pensions funds, the need to establish best practice in the field is growing.
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Special Report
AP7 notches up legal success against Kraft Heinz
In May 2023, Sweden’s AP7 fund recorded a significant victory for Swedish and other investors when US food giant Kraft Heinz agreed to settle a class action lawsuit for $450m (€421m).
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Special Report
Prospects special report 2024: CIOs on what awaits investors
Asset management CIOs and strategists answer key questions about investment for the 12 months and beyond
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Special Report
Is sustainable finance working?
Sustainability is now a top consideration for investors, but there is little evidence it is leading to a more sustainable economy
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Special Report
Sustainable finance professionals take stock
IPE asked the responsible investment leads of top European asset owners a key question: has the ESG / green finance movement been effective in achieving a more sustainable economy? Here are their answers
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Special Report
What should EU investors do if the Republicans win the White House?
Sustainability-minded investors should wake up to the challenge of right-wing populism and its threat to climate policy
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Special Report
Plenty left for EU sustainable finance policy to tackle
European policymakers have gone full throttle on sustainable finance over the past five years. Do they have the wherewithal to finish the job?
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Special Report
Is there a role for ethics in ESG investing?
What if investors acknowledged that, sometimes, some things are just the right thing to do?
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Special Report
Who decides if investors can pursue sustainability objectives?
Pension funds must be prepared in case their members don’t care about sustainability
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Special Report
Corporate reporting: UK pivots to a forward-looking view on climate transition plans
The Transition Plan Taskforce has given its final recommendations for climate transition plans. If adopted by the FCA they will lead to a step-change in reporting by financial institutions
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Special Report
Investors’ climate lobbying turns from corporates to sovereigns
Engagement efforts with companies on climate issues have fallen short, and investors are now raising the stakes by lobbying governments on climate policy
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Special Report
Natural capital and biodiversity: betting on disclosure for nature
The Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) has taken a pragmatic approach to developing its final recommendations
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Special Report
A blueprint for a transition-aligned financial architecture
Investors, governments and the entire international financial architecture must design their own their transition plans
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Special Report
ESG Guide 2023: The future of sustainable finance
With or without the backlash against ESG in the US, big questions have been looming over the sustainable finance industry – like ‘is sustainable finance working?’.