All IPE articles in September 2022 (Magazine)
View all stories from this issue.
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Special ReportSweden: Premium pension revamp takes shape
Following the appointment of a board, the new Fund Selection Agency is filling senior management slots and the AP7 default fund is undergoing a strategy revamp
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Special ReportNorway: Steps towards a new pension settlement
Increasing the retirement age will help put Norway’s pension system on a more sustainable footing, but improving benefits will mean extra costs
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InterviewsRailpen: Next stop, sustainable long-term returns
Richard Williams (pictured), CIO of Railpen, the manager of the UK’s rail transport pension schemes, talks to Carlo Svaluto Moreolo about the institution’s investment strategy, governance model and commitment to sustainability
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Country ReportNetherlands: Implications of the new pension system
The move towards a new Dutch pension system will have significant effects on swap curves and asset allocation
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InterviewsStrategically speaking interview: Italian, global and poised for growth
In asset management, three years can be a short or a long time, depending on many factors, including market conditions. To some asset management executives, the second half of the 2010s perhaps felt like an endless slog, due to the intense competition for market share and outperformance within the seemingly never-ending bull market. The first two years of the new decade have certainly elapsed more quickly, thanks to the historical significance of the events that have occurred.
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Special ReportIceland: International Monetary Fund warns on system risk
Despite its top-ranking pension system, there has been slow progress on increasing diversification abroad and in infrastructure
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Special Report
France: New government revives pension reform
Under Emmanuel Macron’s second presidential term, the French government hopes to achieve an overhaul of the first-pillar pension system
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Special ReportSwitzerland: First-pillar reforms put to the public
A referendum this autumn will decide the fate of reform to the first pillar, and parliament will debate the reform of the second pillar
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FeaturesEuro peripheral spreads
Just over a decade ago, Mario Draghi, then President of the ECB, gave a speech in which he uttered the famous words: “.…the European Central Bank [ECB] is ready to do whatever it takes to preserve the euro”, a phrase often credited with hauling Europe out of the depths of its sovereign debt crisis.
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Asset Class ReportsEquities – Fundamental managers on the search for quality and growth
At a time of high volatility in markets, bottom-up selection based on equity fundamentals is as relevant as ever, but managers remain challenged to find resilient companies
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Special ReportPortugal: Sustainability efforts need to be redoubled
Portugal recognises that past pension reforms mitigated the fiscal effects of an ageing population, but more effort is needed over the coming years
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FeaturesResearch: The democratising of impact investing
Amin Rajan and Sebastian Schiele find investors are opting for more social-related investing
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Country ReportNetherlands: Dutch pension funds make early switch to DC
There are various HR and corporate motives for switching to defined contribution arrangements before the new pension system comes into play in the Netherlands
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Opinion PiecesUS: The great unfreeze - does it make sense to reopen DB plans?
US defined benefit (DB) public and corporate pension funds are responding differently to inflationary pressures. Public schemes are more concerned about the negative impact of financial market turmoil on their returns, while corporates are enjoying the rising discount rates that are lowering their liabilities and improving their funded status.
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FeaturesFixed income, rates & currency: defying historical norms
Another US jobs report comes in significantly above consensus. Its across-the-board strength, upward revisions to previous reports, and an unemployment rate at the lowest level since 1963, may indicate that the economy is not quite as near recession as previously surmised. And with inflation still rising, albeit slightly less fast than expected, the outlook remains cloudy.
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Special Report
Ireland: IORP implementation prompts consolidation
Ireland’s pensions trade body warns that many smaller schemes will be unable to meet the requirements of IORP II, accelerating the move to master trusts
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Country ReportNetherlands: Pension transition drives consolidation
Pension schemes are turning to mergers as one way to cope with the rising costs of complying with greater regulation
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FeaturesCommodities show their value
The few pension schemes with an investment in commodities benefitted from this allocation in recent months. Prices in this asset class rose as the pandemic and war in Ukraine pushed up the cost of fossil fuels and re-ignited inflation while both equity and bond markets faltered.
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Opinion PiecesHeatwaves remind us climate finance is more than net zero
In the middle of the now-famous speech that ended Stuart Kirk’s tenure as HSBC’s head of responsible investment, he said something that got lost. While most of Kirk’s controversial May presentation on ‘why investors need not worry about climate risk’ was picked apart on social media and in the press – resulting in his suspension and exit from the asset manager – his slide on climate adaptation (or ‘adaption’) was largely ignored.
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Opinion PiecesInstitutional capital for energy resilience
Ukraine’s independence day on 24 August also marked six months since the start of Russia’s invasion and with it a profound shift in the global geopolitical and economic balance.
