The Global Risk Institute in Financial Services is creating a national pension hub that will be a Canadian centre for pension knowledge and research.
It will provide research into pensions and income security that it hopes will lead the way to new solutions to plan design, governance and investment challenges, according to a release.
“The diversity of our membership in the national pension hub is one of our key strengths,” said Barbara Zvan, chair of the hub and chief risk and strategy officer at the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. “It will help us produce innovative ideas and research that reflect a wide range of interests and perspectives.”
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A number of Canada’s largest pension funds have already joined the association, including the Alberta Investment Management Corp., the British Columbia Investment Management Corp., the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and the Public Sector Pension Investment Board.
Other members include the Canadian National Railway Co., Deloitte University, the Investment Management Corp. of Ontario, KPMG, McKinsey and Co., Mercer, PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Global Risk Institute. Pension experts Bob Baldwin and Hugh Mackenzie are also members.
The press release noted that additional members are being recruited, including governments and companies associated with pension plans. The Global Risk Institute will administer the national pension hub.
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Looking at the evolving challenges facing the pension industry in the past decade — including an aging population with a longer life expectancy, finite resources to invest in, more complex regulations, greater market volatility and a slower growth economy — the pension association will provide objective research on pensions and income security aimed at helping pension plan providers, investment managers, policy-makers and government administrators address these and other challenges.
“We plan to build a deep reservoir of pension knowledge and research that will inform pension industry stakeholders, encourage debate on pension policy and lead to consensus on critical issues,” said Richard Nesbitt, chief executive officer of the Global Risk Institute.
The national pension hub will set its first research topics and projects at its inaugural meeting at the beginning of November. It expects most projects will have a two-year time horizon with interim reports to be delivered after the first year.
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Editor’s note: Story updated Oct. 6 to correct the name of the organization administering the national pension hub.