The latest
Asset Classes

Liquidity tightens, volatility rises

How should pension funds in the United Kingdom best prepare for the government unwinding quantitive easing (QE) and tightening monetary policy? The Bank of England isn’t showing any signs of ending QE just yet, its policy begun in 2009 and designed to stimulate the economy by creating new money to buy government bonds. But QE […]
Sarah RundellSeptember 11, 2013
Research

Dynamic allocation using minimum volatility

Active managers who are increasingly on the ropes as beta strategies encroach upon their alpha returns can take heart from the latest research from index provider MSCI. In the latest insight from Barra, Dynamic Allocation Strategies Using Minimum Volatility: Detecting Regime Shifts to Enhance Active & Passive Investing, Philippe Durand and John Regino argue that […]
Sarah RundellSeptember 6, 2013
Investor Profile

Full throttle, part time at BP fund

Sally Bridgeland, chief executive of BP Pension Trustees, the £18.5-billion ($28.7 billion) pension fund for employees of one the world’s biggest oil companies, only works part-time. She made the decision after a near-fatal skiing accident when she says her life passed before her. She is BP’s first group leader to do so and is evangelical […]
Sarah RundellAugust 30, 2013
Uncategorised posts

UK funds “profoundly” hurt by low interest rates

In his first major announcement as governor of the Bank of England, Canadian-born Mark Carney says ultra-low interest rates are here to stay. This couldn’t be worse news for pension funds, according to pension’s expert, Ros Altmann, but private-public collaboration on infrastructure could help ease the pain.   The prospect of another three years of […]
Sarah RundellAugust 23, 2013
Investor Profile

Connecticut fund manager seeks cash flow

United States equities and real estate were the strongest suits at the $26-billion Hartford-based State of Connecticut Retirement Plans and Trust Funds (CRPTF) out of an entire portfolio that posted 11.6 per cent in the fiscal year ending June 2013. Now the manager of Connecticut’s six retirement plans and nine trust funds is developing opportunistic […]
Sarah RundellAugust 21, 2013
Investor Profile

Oregon State Treasury unwinds and adjusts

Oregon State Treasury, which runs $80 billion worth of state investments including the $62-billion Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund, is preparing the portfolio for a new dawn. John Skjervem, chief investment officer of the treasury’s investment division, sees the speed and extent of the recent sell-off in fixed income as “a shot across the bow” […]
Sarah RundellAugust 14, 2013
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