All Opinion Pieces articles – Page 13
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Opinion PiecesUS: The great unfreeze - does it make sense to reopen DB plans?
US defined benefit (DB) public and corporate pension funds are responding differently to inflationary pressures. Public schemes are more concerned about the negative impact of financial market turmoil on their returns, while corporates are enjoying the rising discount rates that are lowering their liabilities and improving their funded status.
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Opinion PiecesHeatwaves remind us climate finance is more than net zero
In the middle of the now-famous speech that ended Stuart Kirk’s tenure as HSBC’s head of responsible investment, he said something that got lost. While most of Kirk’s controversial May presentation on ‘why investors need not worry about climate risk’ was picked apart on social media and in the press – resulting in his suspension and exit from the asset manager – his slide on climate adaptation (or ‘adaption’) was largely ignored.
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Opinion PiecesInstitutional capital for energy resilience
Ukraine’s independence day on 24 August also marked six months since the start of Russia’s invasion and with it a profound shift in the global geopolitical and economic balance.
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Opinion PiecesAustralia: Downturn casts a shadow over super anniversary
Australia’s superannuation industry enters its fourth decade under the darkening clouds of a global economic slowdown that is already having a dramatic impact on returns.
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Opinion PiecesNotes from Amsterdam: Reform speeds up consolidation
With each passing day the likelihood diminishes that the law on the future of pensions (Wet toekomst pensioenen) will come into force as planned on 1 January next year. The law was sent to parliament in spring this year, but a date for parliamentary discussion is yet to be set.
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Opinion PiecesGuest viewpoint: Pension funds and the EU’s sustainability agenda
The European Commission’s Sustainable Finance Strategy, published in summer 2021, sets out how it will support the EU Green Deal and Europe’s transition to carbon neutrality by 2050.
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Opinion PiecesPrivate managers ‘not serious’ about climate
Fears about the effect of human activity from the climate date from the ancient Greeks, but it was not until the 1980s that scientists began to unite for action on climate change, and the warnings have only escalated since. Too often they have been ignored or denied.
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Opinion PiecesESG Viewpoint: Article 9 of SFDR – the new green lodestar?
Regrettably, the EU’s Taxonomy for Sustainable Activities has gone from proposing “real change” to “may be imperfect”. These are the polite words of EU financial services commissioner Mairead McGuinness. Less politely, Greta Thunberg judged that the taxonomy simply “takes greenwashing to a completely new level [since t]he people in power do not even pretend to care any more. They just label fossil gas as green and nuclear waste as pollution controllable over the next 100,000 years.”
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Opinion PiecesViewpoint: The realisation of private asset illiquidity risk
The divergence in performance between asset classes over the first half of 2022 has been extreme.
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Opinion PiecesViewpoint: New UK government taskforce signals importance of ESG
There has been substantial progress in climate-related and governance issues, but social factors, have not always received as much attention.
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Opinion PiecesViewpoint: Definition conundrum not a reason to ditch ESG
The difficulty of measuring ESG criteria should not be a reason to ditch the term altogether, according to the Dutch pension federation
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Opinion PiecesViewpoint: Trustees should treat biodiversity as important as carbon emissions
Biodiversity loss carries the same level of existential threat as carbon emissions
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Opinion PiecesViewpoint: Overlaps in judgement
Many investors believe markets to be cyclical and search for signs of cycles in an attempt to predict which investment styles are coming into and out of favour
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Opinion PiecesViewpoint: How to fix the three ‘mega-gaps’ facing the UK economy
Planting the seeds of long-term growth now by focusing on age, carbon and infrastructure is how we can ensure our economy gets back on track
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Opinion PiecesThe cost of high fees
Asset owners’ never-ending quest for better management fees is now at its peak.
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Opinion PiecesHow to bridge a most obvious pension investment gap?
Investment luminaries were recently invited by the CFA Institute to give their opinion on the financial system in a publication to mark the quarter century of the institute’s research award to commemorate Jim Vertin.
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Opinion PiecesAustralia: Superannuation funds on a consolidation path
Australians are beginning to get used to super funds with names like Australian Retirement Trust, Aware Super and Spirit Super.
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Opinion PiecesUS: A cautious approach on private assets in DC plans
Will 2022 be the year when private equity is finally incorporated in US defined contribution (DC) plan line-ups? Possibly, following the Department of Labor’s (DoL’s) clarification of its position in a letter last December. But it will be a very slow process, according to industry experts.
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Opinion PiecesNorway needs another pensions overhaul
It’s official – Norway’s state pension system needs another overhaul. The Pension Commission published its hefty report in June arguing for changes to make it socially sustainable – raising age limits, pegging minimum benefits to wage growth and shielding disability pensions from the effects of life expectancy adjustment.
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Opinion PiecesLet’s not get carried away about ESG ratings
Elon Musk’s reaction to Tesla dropping out of the S&P ESG 500 index and the publication of a high-profile paper on the ‘Aggregate Confusion’ of ESG ratings have helped trigger a renewed discussion about ESG ratings. At a time when the European Commission and UK rule-makers weigh potential regulatory action, it is important to be clear about what the problem is that needs to be solved and for whom.
