December 2019

19Dec

ISLA forms Council for Sustainable Finance

The International Securities Lending Association (ISLA) has formed a Council for Sustainable Finance (ICSF), amid wide-spread market debate around the compatibility of asset managers’ lending programmes and the growing trend of socially-conscious financing. The council will be chaired by Radek Stech, who is also council chair and founder of the Sustainable Finance, the Law, Stakeholders (SFLS) network at Exeter Law School. It will sit for the first time in Q1 2020 and will operate for a five-year term. ISLA...

December 19, 2019
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16Dec

Ethics, ESG, and ERISA: Ethical-Factor Investing of Savings and Retirement Benefit

By Albert Feuer (Law Offices of Albert Feuer) Ethical-factor investing is investment decision-making that takes into account ethical factors. It includes faith-based investing, Environmental, Social or Governance (ESG) investing, and sustainable investing. It is becoming more and more widespread. This has occurred despite a lack of widely accepted definitions, performance metrics, or ethical preferences. There is increasing broad agreement that some ethical factors highlight business risks and opportunities in a predictable fashion, such as the effects of climate change, human...

December 16, 2019
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10Dec

Canada’s second largest pension fund gets deadly serious about climate crisis

As world leaders converge at this week’s climate summit in Madrid to debate how best to shift to a net zero-economy, Michael Sabia is leaving the helm of Canada’s second-largest pension plan having firmly placed Quebec’s retirement savings at the forefront of the global movement for low-carbon investing. Sabia, who recently announced he’s stepping down from the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) in early 2020, ushered in a fundamental change in how the $326 billion Quebec...

December 10, 2019
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06Dec

The Real Effects of Environmental Activist Investing

By S Lakshmi Naaraayanan, Kunal Sachdeva, Varun Sharma Using a socially-motivated activist campaign by a large pension fund, we measure the real effects of activist investing on pollution and the environment. Targeted firms reduced their total toxic chemical releases, production-related emissions, cancer-causing pollution, environmental accidents, and legal risks. These effects do not come at the expense of lower financial performance or returns. We rule out natural alternative hypotheses while also presenting evidence supporting the external validity of socially motivated...

December 6, 2019
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November 2019

22Nov

Impact investing is about more than saving the world

“It’s not up to us to save the world.” This was the response I received from a trustee of one of the UK’s largest pension schemes recently to my pitch for impact investment. The reaction was familiar. The paucity of data showing that you can “do well by doing good” makes it easy for schemes to ignore commentators who insist upon it. Yet for all the myths that have grown up discouraging this type of investing, institutional investors who...

November 22, 2019
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18Nov

German parliament approves climate protection law

The German lower house of parliament approved on Friday a major climate protection package which aims to ensure Germany will meet its 2030 target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Read also Can fintech bridge the inequality gap The package, agreed after months of haggling between the Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives and her Social Democrat coalition partners, has already been criticized as inadequate in view of the urgent challenges posed by climate change. Read also Impact investing is about more...

November 18, 2019
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15Nov

Sura Asset Management adoptará prácticas ambientales

Sura Asset Management se convirtió en signatario de los Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), con lo que se compromete a adoptar prácticas en temas de inversión ambiental, social y de gobierno corporativo (ASG). “Lo que nos permite esta firma es continuar avanzando y madurando los procesos de inversión ASG, porque toma tiempo adaptarnos y le daremos más prioridad a este tipo de inversiones”, explicó Juan Camilo Osorio, vicepresidente de inversiones en Sura Asset Management. Lee también México. Afores...

November 15, 2019
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14Nov

Australia. A 24-Year-Old Is Suing Pension Fund for Not Being Green Enough

Mark McVeigh, a 24-year-old environmental scientist from Australia, won’t be able to access his retirement savings until 2055. But, concerned about what the world may look like then, he’s taking action now, suing his A$57 billion ($39 billion) pension fund for not adequately disclosing or assessing the impact of climate change on its investments. The Federal Court battle is shaping up to be a unique test case. Are pension funds in breach of their fiduciary duties by failing to...

November 14, 2019
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06Nov

Green Coalition: Pension Plans Miss Billions by Not Divesting from Fossil Fuels

A new study shows that the two largest pension funds in the US—the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS)—as well as the Colorado Public Employees’ Retirement Association, combined missed out on $19 billion in investment returns over the last decade by investing in fossil fuel stocks. The study is the latest salvo by environmentalists in their battle to convince the large pension funds to divest their portfolios of the stocks of...

November 6, 2019
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October 2019

24Oct

SA retirement funds are ahead of the pack with ESG investing

Worldwide, retirement funds are warming up to the idea of environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing. However, most funds have yet to move from appreciating the rationale for ESG investing to actually making such investments. The reason is regulation that, with a few exceptions — notably SA — is not particularly ESG friendly. SA retirement fund regulation goes much further in encouraging ESG investing than jurisdictions such as the US, making the country worth watching — as we saw...

October 24, 2019
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