June 2024
14Jun

LGBTQ and finance

By Sanjukta Brahma, Konstantinos Gavriilidis, Vasileios Kallinterakis, Thanos Verousis & Mengyu Zhang Recent changes in workplace and corporate board diversity policies and a series of court rulings have signalled a fundamental change in the treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (henceforth LGBTQ) people in the corporate world. In this paper, we survey the burgeoning literature on the role of sexual orientation in finance. Studies show that there is a positive relationship between the adoption of LGBTQ-friendly policies and...

June 14, 2024
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14Jun

UK. Labour manifesto confirms key pension priorities

The Labour Party has shared its 2024 manifesto, confirming plans to conduct a pensions review if elected, to consider what further steps are needed to improve security in retirement, and increase productive investment in the UK economy. In its manifesto, Labour said that it will act to increase investment from pension funds in UK markets, by adopting reforms to ensure that workplace pension schemes take advantage of consolidation and scale, and to deliver better returns for UK savers and greater...

June 14, 2024
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11Jun

US Pension Fund’s Interest in Bitcoin: FOMO or a Future-Proof Strategy?

The State of Wisconsin Investment Board recently announced the purchase of $99 million worth of IBIT shares, BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF. This marks the first investment in Bitcoin ETF shares by a public pension fund. While this is the first time a state pension has bought shares of a Bitcoin ETF, it’s not the first bitcoin investment by a pension fund. In October 2021, the Houston Firefighters' Relief and Retirement Fund acquired an undisclosed amount of BTC through institutional bitcoin...

June 11, 2024
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05Jun

Expert panel: How transition investments can help institutional investors reach net zero

Driven by the net-zero pledge towards green investments, institutional investors are finding themselves uncomfortably wedged between a rock and a hard place. If they invest exclusively in green assets and earn lower returns than the broader stock market benchmark, as was the case in 2023 for environmental, social and governance funds, they’re criticized for underperforming. But if they invest a small portion of the portfolio in brown firms, investors face recrimination for greenwashing. Also rubbing salt into the wound is the...

June 5, 2024
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05Jun

Australia’s Active Super found guilty of making misleading environmental claims

Australia's Federal Court has found superannuation fund Active Super guilty of making misleading claims concerning its environmental, social and governance (ESG) credentials, the country's securities regulator said on Wednesday. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) had sued Active Super last year, disputing the fund's claims that it no longer held investments in gambling, coal mining and oil tar sands, and that it had exited Russian investments. The court found that between February 2021 and June 2023, Active Super invested in...

June 5, 2024
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04Jun

How Sustainability Disclosures and Regulations Benefit Investors

There are several regulations and disclosure requirements aimed at meeting sustainability and greenhouse gas reduction targets worldwide that investors will need to understand and from which they can hopefully benefit. Asset owners representing trillions in assets have pledged to mandate things such as sustainable, carbon-neutral portfolios and divestments from carbon producers. For example, the U.N.’s Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance represents 69 asset owners with $8.4 trillion in assets under management with a target of achieving net-zero portfolios by as late as...

June 4, 2024
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04Jun

More than half of investors plan to boost alternatives — survey

More than half of investors (55%) plan to increase their alternative investment allocation over the next five years, according to survey by analytics provider Clearwater Analytics. Thirty-five percent of investors indicated they plan to increase alternative investment allocations based on current market conditions, while 6% plan to decrease their alternative investment allocations. “As investors continue to scan the alternatives market for opportunities, numerous challenges and trends have come into closer view," said Scott Erickson, chief revenue officer at Clearwater Analytics, in...

June 4, 2024
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May 2024
31May

US. Wall Street scans for potential volatility after Trump verdict

The impact of former President Donald Trump’s historic guilty verdict has yet to set in on Wall Street. From round-the-clock currencies to after-hours equity trading, most financial assets — aside from shares in Trump Media & Technology Group — were largely stable after a New York jury found Trump guilty on all 34 felony counts. But for traders, the question now is how the decision will impact markets that are already starting to prepare for the 2024 U.S. elections — in...

May 31, 2024
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31May

Global top 300 pension funds. A Thinking Ahead Institute and Pensions & Investments joint study

By The Thinking Ahead Institute and Pensions & Investments The global top 300 pension funds is an annual study conducted by the Thinking Ahead Institute, in conjunction with Pensions and Investments. The research highlights high-level trends in the pension fund industry and provides information on how the characteristics of these top funds have changed. Get the report here

May 31, 2024
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28May

US. Wall Street braces for faster trade settlement

U.S. trading moves to a shorter settlement on Tuesday, which regulators hope will reduce risk and improve efficiency in the world's largest financial market but may temporarily lead to a rise in transaction failure for investors. To comply with a rule change the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adopted last February, opens new tab, investors in U.S. equities, corporate and municipal bonds and other securities, opens new tab must settle their transactions one business day after the trade, instead...

May 28, 2024
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