Latest from IPE Magazine – Page 47
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InterviewsGermany's VBL: A transformative journey
Michael Leinwand (pictured), CIO of Germany’s VBL, talks to Luigi Serenelli about the pension fund’s growth over the past years and about its evolving responsible investment strategy
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Country ReportUK: Schemes must prioritise members
Pension funds are encouraged to invest in UK illiquids, but it cannot come at any cost
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InterviewsLCH: The other side of the mirror
Isabelle Girolami undoubtedly has a strong background in financial services, having worked for a range of very different institutions in very different roles. She was COO at the fixed income division of BNP Paribas, before going on to a similar role at Bear Stearns, the bank that failed early in 2008 and which was subsumed into JP Morgan. Prior to her current role at LCH she was global head of markets at Crédit Agricole.
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Opinion PiecesCDC: finally off the starting blocks
The Pensions Regulator (TPR) last month approved the Royal Mail Collective Pension Plan as the first registered collective defined contribution (CDC) scheme in the UK
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FeaturesTackling the sustainability conundrum
With climate change and the loss of biodiversity seen as potential existential risks for humanity, it has become imperative to create and implement a sustainable form of capitalism
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Opinion PiecesAlecta’s crisis management
It can certainly hurt a pension provider when investments go badly, but an organisation’s next steps in response to disastrous losses are vital.
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FeaturesGreenwashing: Teasing out the intentional from the accidental
Greenwashing is increasingly under the spotlight as investors and rulemakers try to figure out whether the chief concern is untruthfulness or the unintentional misleading of clients with environmental claims
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Opinion PiecesAustralia: Caps, concessions and class war
The Australian Federal government recently moved to make a “modest” change to the nation’s superannuation system which, it says, will save A$2bn (€1.2bn) a year for its over-stretched budget.
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Opinion PiecesUS: Politics drive ESG debate
Three Republican candidates for the White House are vocal advocates against pension funds adopting environmental, social and governance (ESG) investment practices.
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Opinion PiecesGuest viewpoint: Pensions and the EU's plans on social protection
Elections for the European Parliament will be held in spring 2024, after which a new European Commission will be formed. Early preparation to collect new ideas is ongoing. The Commission’s high-level group on the future of social protection and of the welfare state published a report in February, taking a wide-angle look at social protection, including pensions.
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FeaturesIPE Quest Expectations Indicator May 2023
Russian air superiority over Ukraine is coming to an end due to lack of equipment. Destroying civilian targets is counterproductive and consumes ammunition. Bakhmut is eating into Russian resources, while Ukraine is being re-armed. History teaches that better technology, rather than numerical superiority, wins wars. But even a lopsided Ukrainian win would not automatically mean peace.
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FeaturesQontigo Riskwatch – May 2023
*Data as of 31 March 2023. Forecast risk estimate for each index measured by the respective US, World and Emerging Markets Qontigo model variants
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FeaturesAhead of the curve: What happened to equity volatility in 2022 and what next?
Something strange happened last year. Expectations about the future level of volatility in US equities – implied volatility – behaved in a very unusual way. In a falling market, the price of implied volatility normally rises because equity falls are associated with a worsening macroeconomic outlook, implying more market risk. Expectations of future volatility therefore increase.
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FeaturesFixed income, rates & currency: Chill winds prompt caution
Although 2022 was a remarkably bad year for bonds and equities, any hopes that 2023 might illuminate a brighter path have already been dispelled as rapidly changing narratives – from recession to boom to fears of a banking crisis – all tossed and turned stock and rates markets. The result was a remarkably turbulent first quarter.
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FeaturesJapan: New hand on the tiller
Kazuo Ueda, is the first new governor of the Bank of Japan (BoJ) in 10 years. One of outgoing governor Haruhiko Kuroda’s last moves was to widen the yield curve control (YCC) band on 10-year bonds from +/-25bps to +/-50bps. The reaction from the bond market over the following few days was to trade to the new upper limit.
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Country Report
UK: One way for DC schemes to access private markets
There is much debate about mark-to-model valuation methodologies and whether a material economic downturn will cause these to catch up with public market price falls, but the history books will show that portfolios with allocations to private markets were more robust than those with none in 2022 – the worst year on record for traditional balanced portfolios.
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Asset Class ReportsPortfolio Strategy – Emerging market equities
The Adani corporate scandal in India brought the issue of corporate governance in emerging markets back to the fore. As Lynn Strongin Dodds finds, however, emerging market corporates are slowly adapting to the requirements of institutional investors in terms of governance.
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Special ReportBriefing – Regulation
In Frankfurt, EIOPA has responded to the European Commission’s call for technical advice in its stocktake on IORP II, the European framework for occupational pensions. EIOPA proposes widening the scope of IORP II in a pivot away from cross-border pensions and towards sustainability. A consultation process is open until 25 May.
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Country ReportCountry Report – Pensions in the Netherlands (April 2023)
The Netherlands is in the final legislative stages of what will probably be the largest and most complex workplace pension system change ever in the world. Yet as it edges towards the parliamentary finishing line, recent political events could yet knock the process off course.
