There is a David-and-Goliath feeling to the battle Michael Johnson, a research fellow at the London-based think tank the Centre for Policy Studies, is waging against the pension industry. His research, which lays out the case for radically simplifying all aspects of the United Kingdom’s pension sector, has earned him a reputation as a maverick. … Read more
For many institutional investors, surviving the financial crisis in good shape has been the challenge of a lifetime. Few have had to deal with an asset seizure from Napoleon and two world wars being fought on its soil. It is a history that Italy’s Compagnia di San Paolo is proud of, yet in its asset … Read more
Antony Barker has only been director of pensions at the £8-billion ($12.2-billion) Santander Pension Fund, a defined benefit scheme for employees of the UK arm of the Spanish-owned bank, since August last year. Charged with rejuvenating the pension scheme, a worrying source of risk blighting the fortunes of the bank and a thorn in the … Read more
Wall Street is not normally synonymous with sustainability. But today, the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will ring the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange to welcome NYSE Euronext into the Sustainable Stock Exchanges Initiative, joining NASDAQ OMX and leading emerging market exchanges from Turkey, South Africa, Egypt, Brazil and India. Why would … Read more
Distinct regulation of United States public pension funds that links the liability discount rate to expected return on assets, rather than to the riskiness of their promised benefits, sets them apart – in a bad way. US public funds have underperformed other pension fund cohorts because of higher allocations to risky assets. Arguably, regulation is … Read more
As another fiscal year draws to a close Tim Walsh, director of the New Jersey Division of Investment, investment managers of the $75.64-billion New Jersey Pension Fund, reflects on another good year. “It’s been a double-digit year with the best asset classes, plain vanilla US equities and structured credit,” he says speaking from the Division … Read more
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