February 2023

UK. New Funding Code could affect how pension schemes are run

UK pension schemes are expecting the Defined Benefit (DB) Funding Code, currently in consultation, to affect the way they are run in the future, a recent poll by Aon has found. At a recent Aon webinar on the funding code consultation, almost 250 attendees were asked how material they thought the new funding regime would be to the way their schemes are run, with 42% of respondents indicating that they thought it would have either a moderate or a significant...

U.K. Regulators Are Urged to Address Pension Risks After Last Year’s Crisis

British regulators failed to properly monitor the risks created by the derivatives-based investment strategy that upended the U.K.’s pension sector last year, an investment approach that poses a continuing risk to companies if changes aren’t made, according to a U.K. legislative panel. Liability-driven investments, known as LDIs, invest in derivatives that are tied to U.K. government bonds known as gilts. They help pensions match long-term liabilities they have to retirees with less capital than they would need had they owned...

US pension funds are on the brink of implosion – and Wall Street is ignoring it

By David Sirota As public officials across America prepare to funnel even more of government workers’ savings to private equity moguls, an alarm just sounded for anyone bothering to listen. It is a warning that Wall Street executives, busy skimming fees off retirement nest eggs, want you to ignore. The longer the warning goes unheeded, however, the bigger the financial time bomb may be for workers, retirees and the governments that pay them. Earlier this month, PitchBook – the go-to news...

World’s Top Pension Fund GPIF Posts Longest Loss in 20 Years

Japan’s state pension fund, the world’s largest, posted a fourth straight quarterly loss in its longest losing streak in two decades. The Government Pension Investment Fund lost 1% during the quarter ended December, or 1.85 trillion yen ($14 billion), reducing its total assets to 189.9 trillion yen, the fund said in Tokyo Friday. Its Japanese stocks holdings rose 3.2% during the period and domestic debt lost 1.7%. The foreign equities portfolio was down 0.05%, while overseas bonds fell 5.3%. Once a...

Norway’s gigantic sovereign wealth fund loses a record $164 billion, citing ‘very unusual’ year

Norway’s sovereign wealth fund on Tuesday reported a record loss of 1.64 trillion Norwegian kroner ($164 billion) for the whole of 2022, citing “very unusual” market conditions. The so-called Government Pension Fund Global, among the world’s largest investors, returned -14.1% last year, which it said was 0.88 percentage points better than the return on its benchmark index. “The market was impacted by war in Europe, high inflation, and rising interest rates. This negatively impacted both the equity market and bond market...

January 2023

Push into illiquid assets exposes UK pension savers to higher fees

The UK government will relax rules shielding tens of millions of UK retirement savers from high charges as it aims to channel billions of pounds of pension fund cash into longer-term investments such as start-ups and infrastructure. The government on Monday confirmed plans to exempt performance fees from an annual 0.75 per cent cap on annual charges that can be levied on auto-enrolled pension savers. The cap has long been seen by the industry as a barrier for many “defined...

New York State common allocates 11 Billion alternatives

New York State Common Retirement Fund, Albany, disclosed just over $1.1 billion in new commitments completed in December, a transaction report on its website shows. Within private equity, the $233.2 billion pension fund committed $350 million to Apollo Investment Fund X, a buyout fund managed by Apollo Global Management, and $300 million to Hellman & Friedman Capital Partners XI, also a buyout fund. The pension fund also disclosed two commitments to funds managed by KSL Capital Partners: $300 million to real...

US. Cryptocurrency Was Sold To State And Local Pensions As ESG

Senator Katie Muth, a Board Member for the $40 billion Pennsylvania State Employees’ Retirement System (PSERS) will never forget the first meeting of the pension board she attended and the ESG presentation she heard which included cryptocurrency as a solution for the un-banked in African countries. “I was really looking forward to the ESG presentation but was very confused as to how blackbox fake currency could improve the lives of people suffering from economic hardship on the continent. The...

UK pension schemes search out forestry investments

Nest and Cushon, two UK pension schemes with combined assets of more than £26bn, are in a joint search for asset management partners to develop new forestry investment strategies to address climate change pressures. Both pension schemes believe that allocating money to forestry projects will offset environmentally damaging emissions from other investments and deliver attractive returns as the price of carbon rises to reflect the increasing costs of pollution by human activity. The schemes have set aside an initial £600mn for...

South Africa. PIC refutes government pension fund insolvency claims

The Public Investment Corporation (PIC), which manages over R2 trillion in funds, is refuting claims circulating on social media that the Government Employee Pension Fund (GEPF) is facing insolvency risks, as a result of an alleged £158 billion (R3.3 trillion) legal claim against its portfolio of assets. According to a PIC statement released on Monday, ‘Nedbank Private Wealth’, a Nedbank subsidiary previously affiliated with insurer Old Mutual, is alleged to have engaged in “bad business practices” in the UK and...