Equity risk expectations – a response to short-termism

Solving short-termism is being held up by the institutional investment industry as some sort of performance saviour. There have been many attempts at uncovering the problems of, and offering solutions to, short-termism with numerous reviews, conferences and papers discussing the need for long-term investing. These include the incentives and behaviour of asset owners, asset managers … Read more

PKA seeks to satisfy its infrastructure hunger

The DKK200-billion ($35-billion) Danish medical professionals pension fund grouping, PKA, wants its government to help satisfy its appetite for investing in major infrastructure projects. Frank Jensen, an analyst on its asset strategy team, says PKA “is eager to get started” on sealing public-private partnerships with the Danish government, but its plans “have not come as … Read more

Norway opens a window on its global investment strategy

On March 8 when Yngve Slyngstad announced the annual results of Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, he did more than unveil a routine set of numbers. The chief executive of The Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), which manages the Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG), was also revealing the first results following what he called a “substantial” change … Read more

Gloom at NAPF attests to investor adventure

One year on and the job of trustees gathered at the United Kingdom’s National Association of Pension Funds, NAPF, annual investment conference in Edinburgh hasn’t got any easier. As the search for optimism in a low-return world endures, the conference seems to be caught in a time loop. Compared to last year, deciding on the … Read more

Pension funds reject EU financial transaction tax

When the European Commission announced plans on February 14 to introduce a Financial Transaction Tax (FTT) by the start of 2014, it planted a bomb under Europe’s pension funds. That is not, of course, the view of Algirdas Šemeta (pictured below right), the EU’s commissioner for taxation. He says the proposed tax is “unquestionably fair … Read more

Ugo Bassi focuses on transparency at ICGN

For many people their most memorable in situ news moment is when man landed on the moon or when John Lennon, Princess Diana or Michael Jackson died. But most Italians will remember where they were when Pope Benedict XVI resigned. A country with record unemployment, no head of state and no head of the church … Read more