The home country bias of US public pension plans is diminishing, with the average allocation to US equities, falling from 42.3 per cent to 38.1 per cent from 2003 to 2008.
Barclays looks to cash in its iShares chips
Barclays has confirmed it has held discussions with a number of potential buyers over the sale of its profitable exchange-traded funds business, iShares, but says no decision regarding the sale of any assets has been made.
Wilshire to drop Dow Jones for index provision
Wilshire will drop Dow Jones as the calculating engine of its indices, and will independently managed its more than 200 indices, including the high-profile Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 index, from April 1.
European funds start rebalancing process
Pension funds in Europe are rebalancing their portfolios to reflect huge falls in equity markets as the financial crisis forces them to re-evaluate the relevance of their strategic asset allocation in the new market environment.
Happy workers make investors happy too
Good companies to work for are also good companies to invest in, according to new research by Alex Edman of the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. In a recent paper, Edmans says there is a direct positive correlation over the long term between employee satisfaction and stock market returns for the companies they work for. In fact, it’s a positive alpha of 4 per cent for his study of 100 companies between 1984 and 2005.
Stopping traffic: Bankpension’s solvency strategy
As markets turn south, remaining solvent is the biggest challenge facing Bankpension, Denmark’s 1.6 billion (US$2.1 billion) pension fund. Chief investment officer Leif Hasager talks to Kristen Paech about the measures the fund has introduced to protect against downside risk.
