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Opinion Pieces
The new face of Australia’s corporate super funds
Australia has seen the number of corporate pension funds shrink significantly over the years, but recent mergers with industry funds are giving new life to the sector
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Opinion Pieces
Could DB pension plans make a comeback in the US?
This year will see developments in the US DC market, but the renaissance of DB plans is set to continue
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Opinion Pieces
Preparedness: a new asset class?
Wars are famously costly. Most people would agree that preventing them is infinitely preferable to paying for them.
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Opinion Pieces
The private credit market needs careful monitoring
European institutional investors seem to be in a bind. Equities performed well this year, but market concentration remains at record levels and many investors expect a correction. Returns from bonds have been mostly positive, but that could change if inflation flares up again. The real estate market may be starting to recover, but it is early days, and the recovery may not be linear.
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Opinion Pieces
German pension reforms in limbo after coalition government collapse
The collapse of Germany’s three-way ‘traffic light’ coalition in November opens questions about the fate of the pension reforms it had drafted over the past couple of years. The government, led by Olaf Scholz, started in 2021 with a mission to reinforce the capital-funded component of the pension system.
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Opinion Pieces
Big Swedish providers raise pension switch worries
Pension transfers are big business in Sweden, and the market could be described as booming right now.
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Opinion Pieces
Australians seek €3.1bn in lost superannuation contributions
In 2021-22, one in four Australian workers missed out on their superannuation contributions. The total lost was A$5.1bn (€3.1bn), despite the country having a compulsory superannuation system.
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Opinion Pieces
Future of ESG investing in doubt following decisive Trump victory
In the past two years, an anti-ESG backlash has grown strong roots on the American right.
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Opinion Pieces
Is it time to add a new layer to strategic asset allocation?
For years, strategic asset allocation (SAA) has been a cornerstone of investment for pension funds and other institutional investors. Is sustainability a missing ingredient?
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Opinion Pieces
Focus falls on finance for real-economy decarbonisation
This month’s COP29 climate summit will focus on finance
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Opinion Pieces
Europe’s right wing can break pensions
Now that they hold power in several European countries, radical right-wing parties can make or break Europe’s pension systems.
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Opinion Pieces
Swiss pension funds reform second-pillar pensions from the bottom up
September’s referendum on the reform of second-pillar pensions demonstrates that comprehensive proposals engineered from the top down don’t always bring the expected results. The latest proposal was roundly defeated by two thirds of the electorate.
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Opinion Pieces
Endowment funds stick with alternatives despite headwinds
Disappointing returns in the last fiscal year may force US university endowments to rethink their investment strategies, but could this include moving away from the so-called Yale model that focuses on alternative investments?
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Opinion Pieces
The size of Australia’s super funds could threaten the financial system
Australia’s central bank has warned that rapid growth of the nation’s superannuation system could “amplify” shocks to the country’s financial stability.
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Opinion Pieces
Will pensions save the savings and investments union?
One only needs to glance over the first page of the recent Draghi report on European competitiveness to find that the European economy is in crisis.
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Opinion Pieces
Investors must work together to improve AI stewardship
While perhaps the same cannot be said about climate change, there seems to be a consensus about artificial intelligence (AI) in the United Nations General Assembly.
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Opinion Pieces
Australian regulators take a deep dive into growing private markets sector
The recent brisk battle to buy an Australian data centre platform, AirTrunk, pushed the price to more than A$24bn (€14.5bn) – double what was anticipated just a few months ago.
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Opinion Pieces
Europe’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive is an opportunity, not a threat
The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) is often mentioned as one of the examples of the European Commission’s excessive zeal when working to implement the Green Deal. It is singled out as an example of overregulation that negatively impacts the competitiveness of European corporations, creates barriers to accessing the EU market and is costly to implement.
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Opinion Pieces
The EU needs a few more AP7s
Europe sure does not have a savings problem – EU household savings amounted to €1.4trn in 2022 versus €840bn in the US. What Europe does have, though, is a glut of bank savings capital that serves as a double bind.
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Opinion Pieces
Disagreements over pension reform persist in the Netherlands
When King Willem-Alexander read out his speech at the opening of the Dutch parliament, the topic of pensions was missing.