More comment – Page 5
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Opinion PiecesPensions are instrumental in Europe’s unfinished capital markets project
This summer will mark 10 years since Jean-Claude Juncker, former EU Commission president, outlined a vision for a European Capital Markets Union (CMU) – a project both uncompleted and still acutely needed.
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Opinion PiecesViewpoint: Unequal voting rights must be phased out
Weakening protections around dual class share structures will not deliver the desired benefits
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Opinion PiecesInvestors could do more to boost German start-ups
The German constitutional court’s ruling that the government’s reallocation of €60bn worth of debt to the country’s Climate and Transformation Fund is unlawful was a blow. But there was also also some welcome news last month.
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Opinion PiecesElection result is bad news for the pension sector
NSC, the new political party that made headlines in this publication with its controversial plan to block pension funds from converting DB pensions to DC without explicit consent from members, did not win the landslide victory that many pension executives feared. But they probably did not get a good night’s sleep anyway.
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Opinion PiecesActive management is back on the menu for US pensions
Rising rates and market volatility are forcing US pension funds to rethink their approach to passive and active investing. They are realising that their US stock portfolios are not diversified enough to help protect against a correction. But change may not come so fast.
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Opinion PiecesSuper funds voice corporate governance concerns with Australian business
At its recent annual general meeting in Melbourne, Qantas, Australia’s national carrier, was lambasted by irate shareholders over a litany of grievances, not least the role of chairman Richard Goyder and the board over what shareholders saw as the mismanagement of the airline.
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Opinion PiecesSecurities litigation can be worth the effort
Pension funds and other institutional investors face an uphill challenge when it comes to managing their investor action responsibilities.
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Opinion PiecesWill social partners carve a new role for themselves in pensions?
Social partnership can mean different things in many countries, or very little at all in others. The concept resonates most in continental Europe, where a tripartite framework of social-market capitalism has taken root since the second world war, in which corporatist decision-making involving government, labour and employer voices is entrenched.
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Opinion PiecesInvestors should focus on debt sustainability
The good news for institutional investors as 2024 approaches is that central banks seem to have accomplished something remarkable. Inflation is falling in the US and Europe after rising to levels not seen for decades, thanks to what have been among the fastest and sharpest rate hikes. Economic growth has held up, at least in the US. Many economists expect a soft landing there, and a mild recession in Europe.
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Opinion PiecesIreland – future pensions tiger
Ireland stands a few policy steps away from the creation of a serious first and second-pillar pensions architecture that will improve the country’s international standing in terms of retirement provision.
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Opinion PiecesRegulation of private markets is essential
The private markets industry is feeling the pinch. Private equity managers, in particular, are having a hard time raising capital and exiting investments. There are also questions about returns from recent vintages, as businesses struggle with inflation and a choppier trading environment. Meanwhile, private credit managers are pushing back loan repayments to safeguard returns as higher interest rates reduce borrowers’ ability to fulfil their obligations.
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Opinion PiecesPensions a bright spot for Australia
By 2063, Australia’s relatively youthful treasurer, Jim Chalmers, will be 85 years old and likely well into retirement.
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Opinion PiecesSEC cracks down on private equity and hedge funds
Pension funds, university endowments, insurance funds, and other institutional investors have long called for more transparency about their investments in private equity and hedge funds.
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Opinion PiecesIrish pensions auto-enrolment is a worthy challenge
Irish citizens are set to get a retirement boost following the government’s decision to implement its auto-enrolment retirement savings scheme in 2024. That is, if all goes to plan. Under the proposed scheme, which has been a topic of debate in Irish politics for at least 15 years, employees will have access to a workplace pension savings scheme that is co-funded by their employer and the state.
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Opinion PiecesSweden’s Alecta seems immune from criticism but beware the watchdog
Right now, Alecta cuts a strange figure – one of Europe’s biggest pensions institutions wounded after gaping investment losses, and sustaining still worse injuries from the monopolistic hubris it leaves in its wake.
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Opinion PiecesViewpoint: Why we closed Net Zero Now to new employers despite its popularity
A change in the consensus around the role of offsetting to achieve net zero was one consideration, explains UK master trust Cushon’s director of policy and research
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Opinion PiecesViewpoint: A response to ISSB’s Faber’s ‘triple illusion’ criticism of double materiality
Frédéric Ducoulombier, of EDHEC-Risk Climate Impact Institute, says the ISSB chair straw-mans the positions of advocates of the EU ESRS’s double materiality
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Opinion PiecesViewpoint: To outsource, or not to outsource? The rise of OCIOs
OCIO is a trend being encouraged by market volatility, increased portfolio intricacy, and the growing burden of regulatory compliance
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Opinion PiecesDoes the UK really need to consolidate thousands of DB schemes?
The UK’s so-called Mansion House Reforms are under way. This cluster of policies takes its name from the residence of the Lord Mayor of the City of London, which is the venue for a regular set-piece policy speech by British chancellors of the exchequer, the latest of whom is Jeremy Hunt.
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Opinion PiecesDon't expect Dutch pension funds to make a big move to alternative investments
It is often assumed that the upcoming pension reform in the Netherlands will lead pension funds to increase their allocations to alternative assets as their policy priorities will move from protecting their funding ratios to providing indexation for their members.
