The Canada Pension Plan’s (CPP) reserve fund was among the top-performing funds in terms of investment returns during the “boom and bust” era of 2005–2009, but overall global pension fund assets are still below pre-crisis levels, according to an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report. The organization’s July issue of Pension Markets in […]
The number of Canadian investment managers calling themselves bears is growing due to recent economic developments, according to a survey. The latest quarterly survey from Russell Investments shows that Canadian investment managers bearish on the Canadian stock market increased to 19% from 9% three months earlier. At the same time, the percentage of managers considering […]
Steady state: securities lending post-Lehman June 25, 2010 | Scot Blythe Securities lending has come through a rough two years globally. Surprisingly—or perhaps unsurprisingly, given the country’s seemingly inherent financial conservatism—Canada hasn’t been affected all that much. In fact, one observer thinks custodians serving Canadian clients “ought to be congratulated for not getting carried away.” […]
Exchange-traded funds have changed the nature of the debate between active management and passive investing. Passive investing once involved holding a broad-market index fund and comparing performance against an active manager who used the same benchmark. What essentially differentiated an actively managed fund was that it was exposed to individual stock risk, according to a […]
There’s a global shift in the asset allocations of institutional investors afoot toward riskier, less liquid assets, according to a recent survey. bfinance’s latest Pension Funds & Insurance Asset Allocation Survey of institutional investors in Europe and North America finds that among core asset classes, the three-year outlook for equity continues to slide while bullishness […]
Here’s another sign that the financial crisis is behind us. Sceptre Investment Counsel Limited and Fiera Capital, Inc. have signed a definitive agreement to merge the two companies. The announcement may well be saying that resurgent Canadian companies have enough cash, credit and confidence to undertake such deals. The new company will be named Fiera […]
In our May 2009 Top 40 Money Managers Report, institutional money managers were seeing red, logging mammoth losses in the great train wreck that was 2008. Just last year, we reported that the Top 40 money managers had $300 billion shaved off the value of assets under management, prompting one manager to comment that the […]
Record-high levels of currency volatility in the world markets over the last few years have left a growing number of Canadian institutional investors pondering the suitability of their currency investment policy. Over the last decade, investors have increasingly moved their asset mix toward foreign assets. Canadian investors first diversified their equity portfolios with investments in […]
Toronto’s Sheraton Center was the venue on Tuesday for a global overview of alternative asset management from the perspective of one of the world’s largest private equity managers. Stephen Schwarzman, chairman and co-founder of the Blackstone Group presented his perspective of investment opportunities in his address, “Prospects for Global Economic Recovery”. Asia—which he described as […]
The news over the past few years has been dominated by stories of massive frauds and Ponzi schemes—Enron, Bernie Madoff and Earl Jones to name a few. We have also witnessed spectacular investment meltdowns such as Long Term Capital Management and Amaranth. More recently, there has also been much discussion about the moral ambiguity of […]