Institutional investors are limiting portfolio diversification through overexposure to a selected group of U.S. technology stocks, says Alec Murray, senior vice-president and head of equity client portfolio managers at Amundi Asset Management. Since the beginning of 2023, he says, public equities have offered strong returns largely due to the performance of a concentrated group of technology […]
The British Columbia Investment Management Corp. is selling more than US$1 billion worth of private equity funds to Ardian, a France-based independent private equity investment company, according to reporting by Bloomberg. Although it’s unclear which assets the BCI intends to sell, last June, Bloomberg also reported the investment manager was considering the sale of roughly $2 […]
In the fight against cybercriminals, institutional investors and other financial organizations are managing cybersecurity just as seriously as any other type of business risk, with standards that can accommodate the integration of new practices and assessment tools. “We’re finding that, pension plans included, enterprises more broadly are taking [cybersecurity] more seriously and putting in place […]
Institutional investors in North America owned US$56 billion worth of exchange-traded fund assets at the end of 2023, a 22 per cent increase year over year, according to a new report by S&P Global. The report, based on financial disclosures from U.S. and Canadian pension funds, endowments and foundations and sovereign wealth funds, found the […]
Four in 10 (39 per cent) Canadian institutional investors say they have either direct or indirect exposure to cryptocurrency, according to a new survey by KPMG in Canada and the Canadian Association of Alternative Assets and Strategies. The survey, which 31 institutional investors and 34 financial services organizations, found three-quarters (75 per cent) of institutional […]
The average Canadian defined benefit pension plan posted a median return of 3.6 per cent in the first quarter of 2024, according to a new report by RBC Investor Services. The report, which tracks performance and asset allocation across Canadian DB plans, credited the positive investment return to the strong performance of equities. Read: Average […]
Environmental, social and governance standards have helped investors generate positive annualized returns, with environmental investments leading the pack globally, according to a new study from Amundi Asset Management. The study reviewed the annualized financial returns of long-short portfolios designed with a broad ESG theme and a more specialized approach in North America, Europe, China, India, […]
The funded ratio of U.S. corporate defined benefit pension plans declined to 98.5 per cent in fiscal 2023 from 99.4 per cent in 2022, according to a new report by Milliman Inc. The report, which reviews the financial disclosures of the 100 largest U.S. public corporate DB plans, found their average return on investments was […]
More than 95 per cent of U.S. public pension funds employ at least one investment consultant, according to a new survey by Coalition Greenwich. The survey, which polled 708 individuals across 575 U.S. institutional investors with assets greater than US$150 million, found there has been a significant increase in the services of investment consultants, as […]
Roughly seven in 10 (73 per cent) Ontario Pension Board plan members believe environmental, social and governance factors should play a critical role in the plan’s investment considerations, according to a new survey included in the investment organization’s inaugural ESG report. The survey, which polled roughly 10,000 plan members, found nearly two-fifths (39 per cent) of […]