While community bonds, an investment asset offered by not-for-profits looking to raise capital for socially conscious projects, are growing in Canada, they don’t match the investment needs of institutional investors, says Rod Lohin, executive director at the Lee-Chin Institute for Corporate Citizenship at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. “[Community bonds are] just […]
While the coronavirus pandemic is in the world’s rearview mirror, institutional investors are continuing to navigate a post-recovery period rife with uncertainty. Indeed, five years after the World Health Organization declared the pandemic on March 11, 2020, world markets are contending with a host of new challenges, including a raging Russia-Ukraine war, a budding tariff […]
Natasha Trainor has overseen the pension strategy at NAV Canada for nearly half a decade and she’s made her imprint by adding a novel review process. “We went through an exercise over the past few years of looking at each asset class and coming up with what we called asset class designs,” says the organization’s […]
Canadian asset owners representing about $53 billion in holdings say they’re disappointed that Canada’s financial institutions have left net-zero emissions initiatives and are calling for them to follow through on climate commitments. The 34 signatories to an open letter include the Trottier Family Foundation, the Canada Post Pension Plan, United Church of Canada and the […]
The Ontario Municipal Employees’ Retirement System is reporting a return of 8.3 per cent as at Dec. 31, 2024. The investment organization surpassed its 7.5 per cent benchmark for 2024 by achieving $10.6 billion in investment returns during the year. Its net assets grew from $128.6 billion in 2023 to $138.2 billion at the end […]
While nearly three-quarters (72 per cent) of U.K. employees say it’s important their employer offers a pension plan that’s invested according to environmental, social and governance factors, half (47 per cent) say they don’t know whether their pension is invested in this way, according to a new survey by Scottish Widows. The survey, which polled […]
An advocacy group is calling on Canada’s public pension managers to use their financial heft to more publicly work to reduce climate change as political efforts become less reliable. In a new report, Shift Action for Pension Wealth and Planet Health says Canada’s big pension funds need to recognize the power and influence they wield and to […]
Although news of BlackRock Inc.’s departure from the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero may call into question the future of the climate action initiative, the road to net zero is still a priority for many financial institutions, says Sebastien Betermier, associate professor of finance at McGill University’s Desautels Faculty of Management. The alliance, which […]
Implementation of harmonized minimum funding regulations for federally regulated defined benefit pension plans tops the Pension Investment Association of Canada’s list of advocacy priorities in 2025. Currently, DB plan sponsors are operating amid a patchwork of minimum funding regulations across the country, as most provinces have introduced requirements of their own. “A unified ‘going-concern plus’ regime […]
Canada’s public pension funds should rethink the billions of dollars they’ve invested in natural gas infrastructure amid the global push to reduce emissions, says a new report from a climate advocacy group. The report by Shift Action for Pension Wealth and Planet Health says nine of Canada’s largest public pensions have invested in 22 gas-related […]