An article on the federal government’s plan to scrap Canada mortgage bonds and the potential impact on pension funds was the most-read story on BenefitsCanada.com over the last week. Here are the five most popular news stories of the week: 1. Feds’ plan to discontinue Canada mortgage bonds may limit pension funds’ abilities to mitigate risk: PIAC […]
Approaches to climate scenario analysis are currently based on “implausible” assumptions that could delay action and create fiduciary duty challenges for investors, according to a new study by the Institute & Faculty of Actuaries. Sandy Trust, head of organizational risk at M&G, a global investment manager headquartered in London, England and one of the authors […]
Abrupt changes in climate policies from governments around the world could lead to fire sales of climate sensitive assets held by institutional investors, according to a the results of a pilot scenario analysis project from the Bank of Canada and the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions. “Climate transition risks are challenging to assess […]
A lawsuit settlement on the other side of the world is reverberating around the globe as it increases the environmental, social and governance standards for a US$41 billion pension fund and potentially encourages similar legal action elsewhere. The lawsuit, filed against the Australian Retail Employees Superannuation Trust, known as REST, by one of its members, […]
Meeting a deadline in the midst of a pandemic seems like a good test of corporate resiliency and, according to a recent survey of Canadian Principles for Responsible Investment signatories that I conducted on behalf of my consulting firm Real Alts, the majority of respondents likely passed. The survey found that almost 80 per cent […]
There is nothing like a deadline to focus the mind. Asset owners and managers who are signatories of the United Nations-supported Principles for Responsible Investments have just five weeks left to complete their annual report on their environmental, social and governance metrics, with the filing deadline being March 31. The challenge in the 2020 report […]
Have you ever noticed that the language of sustainable investment is rife with acronyms? In my opinion, 2020 will see some of the worst tongue-twisters become popularized parlance. Yet an increase in investors learning these bad alphabet jumbles will be a good thing as it will reflect increasing consensus on what’s important in the rapidly […]
Many pension plans use risk systems to test how different scenarios would affect their portfolios. Traditionally, risk models use thousands of scenarios. The likelihood that these scenarios will occur is weighted equally and generally reflects short-term asset characteristics. On the other hand, pension plans also use asset-liability models for long-term portfolio construction. This could result […]
A group of institutional investors, including numerous large Canadian defined benefit pension plans, has released a handbook outlining their experiences implementing the recommendations from the task force on climate-related financial disclosures. The Canadian plans include the Alberta Investment Management Corp., the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, the […]