All articles by Liam Kennedy – Page 4
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InterviewsStrategically speaking interview: Jose Minaya, Nuveen
Asset managers with a yield-hungry pension investor as a parent nowadays usually have to diversify their footprint into private markets, often by acquisitions in one form or another.
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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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Country ReportCountry Report – Pensions in Italy (July/August 2022)
Italy’s pension industry continues to develop, albeit at a slow pace. Italian pension funds are adapting their strategies to the volatile and uncertain market regime, by purchasing inflation-linked assets and by taking advantage of potentially higher yields on domestic government bonds. However, as our lead article highlights, they are generally staying true to their long-term diversification strategies, which consist of gradually allocating to alternatives including private equity, private debt and infrastructure. Some have bought shares in the Bank of Italy, a private equity-like investment.
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Special ReportSpecial Report – Outlook
It’s hardly news that inflation is high on asset owners’ minds right now. We asked eight seasoned asset allocators, CIOs and strategists the same question: how do you rate the chances of stagflation? And what to do about it?
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Asset Class Reports
Quant managers: Quoniam’s Nigel Cresswell
Liam Kennedy spoke to Quoniam Asset Management’s CEO about the challenges and opportunities faced by a quant boutique
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Opinion PiecesPension funds and asset managers: Are you a Yamaha or a Steinway?
In the 1970s, Genichi Kawakami, president of Yamaha Corporation from 1950-77, wanted his pianos to rival those of Steinway.
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InterviewsStrategically speaking interview: Edwin Conway, BlackRock Alternative Investors
Many asset owners focus on the return streams available from private markets investments and the diversification effect of private equity, debt or any of the other flavours available in this sector of the market.
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Special ReportTop 500 Asset Managers 2022
The emergence of persistent higher inflation, China’s zero-COVID policy, stress on global supply chains, and Russia’s Ukraine war all suggest that the asset total of this year’s IPE Top 500 Asset Managers Guide represents a high water mark.
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Country ReportCountry Report – Pensions in the Nordic Region (June 2022)
We open our June Nordic Region report with a stark question: are asset managers living up to asset-owners expectations on ESG, in particular when it comes to climate change reporting?
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Asset Class ReportsPortfolio strategy – Emerging markets
It is no secret that while investments in emerging markets promise to deliver superior returns, thanks to their exposure to faster-growing economies, actual performance has been volatile and, at times, disappointing. Over the past decade, emerging market indices have outperformed, as have fund strategies.
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Opinion PiecesRobust central clearing is critical for millions of Europeans
Derivatives like interest rate swaps are now a central component of risk management best practice. According to a 2018 paper by ISDA and PensionsEurope, the percentage of hedged pension liabilities in Denmark, the Netherlands and the UK ranges from 40-60% of total liabilities.
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InterviewsStrategically speaking interview: Sandro Pierri, BNP Paribas Asset Management
Like many of his counterparts at large asset management firms, Sandro Pierri is mindful of how global trends are influencing his clients and the best ways for his firm to address them.
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Country ReportCountry Report – Pensions in the UK (May 2022)
The 80-plus local government pension funds in England and Wales have been on course to consolidate into eight asset pools for the last six years, with a target of €1-2bn in cost savings by 2033.
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Special ReportSpecial Report – Manager selection
With COVID-19 now under control, the business of selecting managers no longer has to deal with severe restrictions on travel and face-to-face interactions. However, the pandemic has taught investors and manager selection advisers some important lessons.
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Opinion PiecesThe Ukraine war and what it means for pension funds
A health check for pension funds as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine raises questions about diversification and energy
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Country ReportCountry Report – Pensions in Germany & Austria (April 2022)
It took just over 100 days in office before Germany’s new coalition government announced a €500bn budget to first pillar pension financing, setting in motion an agreed reform process that would create a partially funded state pension system.
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Special ReportSpecial Report - Regulation
Europe’s flagship SFDR regime for ESG was never intended to become a fund-labelling framework. So as Susanna Rust also writes in this issue, it is a relief that the EU is now consulting on minimum requirements for Article 8 funds. In this Special Report, we look in some depth at how asset managers have embraced SFDR, taking in the broad reclassification exercise that has taken place to relabel existing funds, and the short-term risks of greenwashing. In the longer term, the hope is for much more standardisation and there are signs that this is already happening.
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FeaturesStrategically speaking – WTW: Democratising private markets
WTW’s ill-fated merger with Aon, announced at the outset of the pandemic in early March 2020, would have shaken up the corporate insurance brokerage market. It would also have created an outsourced CIO (OCIO) giant to compete with Mercer in terms of delegated assets under management (AUM).
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Opinion PiecesEditor's letter: Could CDC provide a solution to the pension income problem?
This month sees the close of a consultation in the UK on a new code of practice for authorisation and supervision of collective defined contribution (CDC) pensions schemes. Trustees will be able to apply to set one up from August this year.
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Book ReviewBooks – Demographics Unravelled: A broad and granular understanding of demographics
Amlan Roy’s contention in his new book Demographics Unravelled is that a wider and more holistic approach to demographics is necessary. An academic by background and a long-standing former head of global demographics and pensions research at Credit Suisse, Roy’s choice of focus in his book underlines his views.
