UK politicians are urging the country's pension funds to invest less in Gilts and more in riskier and complex assets including young UK companies, and infrastructure. Railpen's John Greaves, head of investment strategy and research explains the various problems with the plan.
Executive director of France’s SWF, Olivier Rousseau, a long-time critic of grindingly low bond yields which he has called a "tragedy" for pension funds, can’t hide his enthusiasm for today’s environment of higher interest rates and fiscal tightening after a decade of financial repression.
Given current levels in real interest rates, real return bonds (namely Canadian government bonds and US Tips) represent an 'incredible' return compared to the underlying risk, Canada's HOOPP plans to build on its exposure.
Hit by last year's unusual correlation between equities and bonds, and in a bid to avoid higher long-term inflation, Switzerland's €45.6 billion Publica kick-starts a new strategic asset allocation that will reduce the bond allocation and result in a search for new managers.
Speaking at USS’s 2022 Institutions’ Meeting, Simon Pilcher told stakeholders that the asset manager had navigated market turmoil in the UK bond market by having less leverage than peer funds and diversification, explaining USS also hedges inflation and interest rate risk with US bonds.
Today's positive stock-bond correlation means balanced portfolios will be more volatile without the natural hedge that bonds have long provided to stocks.
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