Lower management fees and higher returns defined the latest selection process at the Swedish Fund Selection Agency in its latest awarding of active global equity mandates to 12 managers, its largest and most ambitious €20 billion ($23 billion) procurement so far.
David Villa, CIO of the $110 billion State of Wisconsin Investment Board is worried about the outlook for returns. As a result he’s significantly underweight sovereign bonds in favour of cash. But he’s also positioning the organisation to do better analytics for more complicated portfolios, another result of a low return environment. The fund is working on at least five data and technology projects and has hired a chief technology and operations officer.
A growing number of influential asset owners have expressed interest in a new sustainable development investment (SDI) Asset Owner Investor Platform launched by Dutch funds APG and PGGM. The AI-driven technology sifts through reams of structured and unstructured data to gauge the extent to which companies’ products and activities meet the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
This article by Roger Urwin, looks at how culture, as a topic within the investment industry, has evolved and ideas as to how culture can play a bigger and better part in the industry going forward.
SWFs are long-term investors and will weather whatever storm is coming, says Majed Al Romaithi, chair of IFSWF and executive director of the strategy and planning department at ADIA, who also encouraged investors to consider risk in a more “sophisticated” way.
This third article about the recently released CFA Institute report, the Investment Professional of the Future, looks at a roadmap for investment firms for developing culture and purpose. Specifically the report recommends that firms enhance the employee experience, invest in empowering leadership, and become change-savvy.
CalPERS is poised to reduce the number of investment committee meetings, and the size of the committee, as it strives to boost returns.
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