Emerging markets corporate debt is taking on a bigger role in fixed-income portfolios with attractive yields and strong underlying fundamentals relative to both sovereign and developed-market high-yield debt attracting investors. While still beholden to sell-offs in risk assets, emerging markets corporate debt has seen strong inflows from institutional investors driven by returns that have outperformed
Recent legal changes governing how US corporate pension plans calculate their funding liabilities could increase moves to de-risk pension plans, particularly through lump sum payments to participants, says Matt Herrmann a retirement risk expert at asset consultant Towers Watson. Herrmann, leader of Towers Watson’s retirement-risk-management group, says the legislative changes that passed through both houses
Investors should reconsider their currency hedging strategies as an undervalued US dollar is predicted to strengthen according to Colin Crownover, State Street Global Advisors global head of currency management. The US dollar is as much as 10 per cent undervalued relative to other major currencies, says Crownover, who also forecasts that the economic-growth gap between
The complexity of sustainable investing could be a step too far for many asset owners with current governance not up to the complexity of embedding environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors into decision-making, according to head of Towers Watson Roger Urwin. The comments come as the global asset consultant is set to release the results
A decision by two of Missouri’s public pension plans to adopt a straightforward risk-based approach to asset allocation garnered their best result in two decades last year, while also providing investment staff with the autonomy to react quickly to changing market conditions. The board overseeing the Public School Retirement System of Missouri (PSRS) and the
Pension funds should disclose their governance arrangements using a methodology similar to a nutrition label, with members easily able to compare the transparency and accountability of fund standards, a leading corporate-governance expert from Yale says. Dr Stephen Davis, the executive director of Yale School of Management’s Millstein Centre for Corporate Governance and Performance, has called
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Emerging Markets