All Opinion Pieces articles – Page 5
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Opinion PiecesUnder the spotlight: US pension plans and their use of leverage
Does US public pension funds’ use of borrowed money and derivatives pose systemic risks to global financial markets? That is the concern of global regulators, which have recently stepped up scrutiny of the practice, according to a recent article in the Financial Times (FT). But senior executives interviewed by IPE seem less worried.
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Opinion PiecesTeamwork in rugby and Italian pensions
A peculiar parallel can be drawn between the Italian second-pillar pension industry and the country’s national rugby union team and its supporters, which every year since 2000 gets excited about the Six Nations Championship.
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Opinion PiecesA thematic focus on sustainability
The evidence for global temperatures rises caused by human emissions of greenhouse gasses (GHGs) has become overwhelming. That means there will have to be a huge adaptation by human societies across the globe to the reality of significant climate changes in the next few decades.
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Opinion PiecesPension funds’ FIDA problem must be solved
In June 2023, the European Commission put forward the Financial Data Access (FIDA) regulation, which is currently being discussed in the relevant Council working group and in the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON).
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Opinion PiecesHow effective is your shareholder voting strategy?
F Scott Fitzgerald famously wrote that “the test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function”.
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Opinion PiecesCan pensions help with German skills crisis?
German companies consider the shortage of skilled workers as one of the biggest risks for the future of their business. According to market data portal Statista, 58% of firms see the lack of qualified workers putting operations at risk in the next few months, second only to the risks posed by energy and commodity prices (61%).
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Opinion PiecesGreen champion to lead Australia’s Future Fund
Australia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Future Fund, which was designed to cover unfunded Federal government pension liabilities, is poised to “renew and refresh”, following the appointment of Greg Combet as its new chair from mid-2024.
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Opinion PiecesViewpoint: A challenging period for emerging market debt or a golden opportunity?
Despite the challenges posed by rising interest rates and the steep rise of the US dollar, none of the bigger emerging markets seem to be in debt distress
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Opinion PiecesViewpoint: Putting impact at the core of sustainable investment market stats
The question of whether sustainable investments actually make a difference was one of the reasons why Eurosif revised its methodology for its market studies
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Opinion PiecesViewpoint: Why profitability may be the greatest quality
Research shows that a company’s current profitability is a powerful predictor of its future cash flows
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Opinion PiecesViewpoint: Investor climate scenarios need to be probability-aware
Riccardo Rebonato, of EDHEC-Risk Climate Impact Institute, argues that climate scenarios need to come with probabilities if they are to be useful for investors
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Opinion PiecesUK equities: stop tinkering and focus on the long term
As the UK heads for a general election this year, both major parties (Labour and Conservative) will be proclaiming their solutions to the UK’s perennial problems of chronically low levels of investment, a dearth of new innovative companies and disappointing growth.
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Opinion PiecesEurope (still) needs pension capital
The pressure on pension funds to invest in domestic assets never fades. Certain countries, notably in Northern Europe, have dealt with it better, for historical and cultural reasons.
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Opinion PiecesCross-border pensions: a better taxation model
When members of the European Union accession generation from central and eastern European (CEE) countries were young they used to dream of visiting Santa Claus in Lapland. As travel abroad was not permitted and communications were not developed, they wrote letters and waited impatiently for their presents to arrive.
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Opinion PiecesAustralian funds jostle for slice of energy transition market
Australia’s largest integrated power generator and energy retailer, Origin, lost out on becoming a cornerstone investment in the US$15bn (€13.7bn) Brookfield Global Transition Fund after a failed A$20bn (€12.2bn) attempt by a Brookfield-led consortium to take over Origin last year.
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Opinion PiecesOpponents of Dutch pension reform can’t agree
The Dutch parliamentary elections of 22 November not only resulted in a historic victory for Geert Wilders. The record loss of the governing coalition also meant the new Pension Act no longer has majority support in parliament.
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Opinion PiecesCorporate pensions: a close eye on yields in 2024
The final two months of 2023 saw a return to form for global fixed income and equities, with respectable single and double-digit numbers in each case. After a false start in early 2023, at least for a multitude of asset forecasters, bonds were finally back in the final months of last year.
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Opinion PiecesGuaranteed retirement income and AI: key themes for the US in 2024
The three major 2024 trends in the US retirement industry, according to senior industry figures interviewed by IPE, are: Plan sponsors will continue to expand financial wellness programmes and explore optional provisions of the new pension law SECURE 2.0. Plan participants will up their demand for guaranteed income and ...
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Opinion PiecesWhy DC pensions should choose private equity as first step into illiquids
Governments, regulators, central banks and even trustees are talking about illiquid investments and the productive economy. This is correctly driven by an underlying belief that illiquid assets can improve overall portfolio risk-adjusted returns. But most importantly, if defined contribution (DC) trustees are already keen to get behind productive finance, where do they start if they currently allocate nothing to illiquids?
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Opinion PiecesReasons to be cheerful in ESG-land
In 1979 Ian Dury, an influential British musician, released a song called ‘Reasons to be Cheerful, Pt 3’, which quickly became a classic. Let us consider why the world of environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing offers grounds for good cheer in the year ahead, even if it is not as rousing as the song.
