Swiss Pension Conference Champions Risk-Taking
Representatives of various Swiss Pensionskassen agreed that funds should take risk, if they can afford it.
Risk
In the Face of De-Risking Pressure, UK Pensions Want More Long-Dated, Inflation-Protected Gilts
As increasing life expectancy and regulations pressure pension funds to de-risk their investments, UK schemes are calling for more long-dated gilts.
Bond Investor Glamour Is Over, Report Says
New research in the Credit Suisse Global Investment Returns Yearbook 2010 by professors from London Business School has shown that over the long run, equities have outperformed inflation, bonds and cash in every market examined.
MassPRIM: Removing FoFs Moves Us Closer to Peers
The Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management Board has decided to embark on a comprehensive asset allocation review in an effort to better fund the $48.7 billion system, highlighting the need to change thinking, strategy, allocation, and management guidelines as circumstances change, the fund's spokesperson tells aiCIO.
Norway SWF Champions Southern European Bonds
Chief Executive of Norway's $513 billion Pension Fund Global Yngve Slyngstad believes measures that were taken during 2010 by European politicians were positive and believes yields on southern European countries' bonds will continue to improve in 2011 as a result.
CERN Revolutionizes Risk Management
Strategy + Tactics from aiCIO Magazine: "We call it a capital preservation philosophy," notes Theodore Economou, the
pension head at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN),
echoing Benjamin Graham's mantra that to win, the first thing you have to do is not lose. "Losing money is not okay."
Spurred by Drive to Outsource, Insurance Asset Managers See Spike in RFPs in 2010
Investment managers are seeing an increase in the number of requests for proposals (RFPs) from insurance companies seeking third party services as the manager selection process evolves to meet increasingly complex investment needs.
Fitch Ratings Says Managers Must Urge Active Management
Fitch Ratings has said European asset managers must restore investor interest in actively managed investment through greater transparency on their products, processes, and communication.
In Effort to Restore Confidence, CalPERS Adds Risk Management Officer and Whistleblower Helpline
Following allegations of influence peddling at the nation's largest public pension fund, CalPERS has revamped its governance policies, and its latest reforms are designed to help better manage risk and restore accountability.
State Pensions Tell Oil Companies to Responsibly Prepare for the Worst
Ceres, a national network of investors, environmental organizations
and other public interest groups, has kicked off a campaign among
global investors with assets totaling more than $2.5 trillion, urging
energy companies to be open and transparent with investors and
stakeholders.
From ai5000 Magazine: Green Swans
Shawn Kravetz writes about how Green Swans are both a risk and an opportunity for investors.
From ai5000 Magazine: Playing the Right Game
The active versus passive investment debate has raged within academic circles for decades without resolution. Unfortunately for the world’s asset owners, this has left them wondering what game—Chase alpha? Ride beta?—they should be playing.
From ai5000 Magazine: Risk Parity, or Just Risky?
The consensus: The rise of derivatives and, more recently, extreme equity volatility have driven many asset owners into the arms of risk parity vendors. The debate: Is this a good thing?
Following the Crash and Nassim Taleb, Firms Start to Offer Black Swan Protection
PIMCO is the latest vendor with plans to offer protection against violent market swings following the 2008 collapse and warnings by commentators such as Nassim Taleb of “Black Swan” fame.
BlackRock Takes Over Equitable Life Mandate to Manage Risk
Equitable Life's new
outsourcing deal with BlackRock is one of the largest European asset
management mandates of the year.