The increase in U.S. corporate debt issued in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak could be a warning signal to credit investors, according to a recent blog post by MSCI’s Research’s managing director, Andy Sparks, and executive director, Gergely Szalka. As many companies headed into the current crisis with an already heavy debt burden, new […]
The majority of U.S.-based defined contribution pension plan sponsors said they haven’t felt the need to pause or reduce contributions during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new survey by the Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Association. While 86 per cent of respondents said they aren’t considering suspending matching employer contributions, just eight per cent said they already have. […]
It appears some institutional investors are aware of activist campaigns before they become public, according to new research. A working paper by three assistant professors of finance — the University of Northern Iowa’s Ryan Flugum, the University of Rhode Island’s Choonsik Lee and the University of South Carolina’s Matthew Souther — found some institutional investors […]
The vast majority (81 per cent) of global pension plan sponsors said they have allocations to some kind of climate change-related funds, according to a new survey from CREATE-Research. Specifically, when it comes to passive funds, 44 per cent of respondents said they allocated at least some of the passive segment of their portfolio to a climate change-related […]
The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan is appointing Karen Frank as senior managing director of equities. Based in the pension fund’s London office, she’ll take on the new role in fall of 2020. “Equities is an integral part of Ontario Teachers’ asset mix, contributing significantly to our ability to deliver on the pension promise to our members,” said Ziad Hindo, […]
While it may seem counter intuitive to add higher-risk securities to a portfolio during times of severe market stress, doing so can be part of a prudent rebalancing strategy, according to a paper from T. Rowe Price Inc. “Regularly reorienting to targeted long-term asset allocations helps ensure that all risk exposures in the portfolio are […]
Canadian institutional investors are operating in a landscape that has changed dramatically since the initial market and policy reactions to the coronavirus pandemic. “A lot has changed over the last five to six months,” said Michael Sager, vice-president and client portfolio manager for multi-asset and currency management at CIBC Asset Management Inc., during a webinar hosted […]
Investors were already feeling the pressures of historically low interest rates. Then came the coronavirus pandemic. The Bank of Canada cut its overnight interest rate at the end of March to an all-time low of 0.25 per cent and announced a plan to spend $5 billion per week on Government of Canada bonds. This came […]
The last decade of persistently low interest rates, exacerbated by the coronavirus crisis, has created challenges for institutional investors looking to generate income on their bond investments. The challenge has been more acute for pension funds and foundations, who rely on bond investments to fund their ongoing benefit and program obligations. Moreover, indications from global […]
The market value of assets in Canadian employer-sponsored pension plans rose to $2.09 trillion in the fourth quarter of 2019, up 2.3 per cent from the previous quarter, according to new data from Statistics Canada. All investment categories saw growth, led by real estate (4.9 per cent) and public equities (4.5 per cent), with mortgages […]