After three years, the strategic partnership that Teacher Retirement System of Texas (TRS) initiated with four of the world’s biggest asset managers is bearing fruit, both in terms of returns and improvements in the fund’s investment processes.
Does pension fund fiduciary duty prohibit ESG integration?
This study analyses more than 1,500 firms from 26 developed countries over a 77 months period using ratings supplied by EIRIS. The results show zero indications that the integration of aggregated or disaggregated corporate environmental responsibility ratings into pension fund investment processes has any detrimental financial effect.
Danish pension fund ATP expands to UK
Danish pension fund ATP will expand its operations into the United Kingdom, and the new head of its UK operations, Morten Nilsson, says they can offer a more diverse range of investments and better risk controls than what is currently available to many British pension fund members.
Did S&P downgrade democracy?
Rogerscasey chief executive, Tim Barron (pictured), provides a different perspective on the S&P downgrade of US Treasuries, asking whether the act was actually a downgrade of democracy in that country.
MSCI improves factor risk modelling for equities
The most recent Barra US Equity Model, USE4, contains some important innovations in factor risk modelling, including the introduction of country risk factors, volatility regime adjustments, and eigenfactor risk adjustments. Amanda White spoke to executive director and head of equity factor model research at MSCI, Jose Menchero, about what that means.
Harvard favours emerging markets and absolute returns over fixed income
Harvard Management Company (HMC), which manages the $32 billion Harvard endowment, has made significant alterations to its policy portfolio, including increasing allocations to emerging market equities and the externally-managed absolute returns program, while slashing fixed income allocations.
