The current economic maelstrom, with its high inflation and interest rates, has left many institutional investors operating in uncharted territory — though not Rashid Maqsood, vice-president of treasury at electrical products distributor Rexel North America Inc. His career began in the late 1970s — almost a decade before central banks began setting inflation targets. “It’s […]
The Canadian Investment Review’s Risk Management Award will go to a pension plan that has successfully implemented a robust approach to its risk management function. This can include implementing de-risking or re-risking or it can showcase day-to-day processes in place for risk management in pension plan investments. Highlights about the three finalists are available below: […]
Despite the low interest rate environment, it still makes sense for defined benefit pension plan sponsors to adopt a liability-driven investment strategy, said Serge Lapierre, global head of LDI at Manulife Investment Management, during a webinar sponsored by the firm on Monday. LDI investing is a risk management framework, he noted. “It’s not an asset […]
The funded positions of Canadian defined benefit pension plans continued to recover in the third quarter of 2020, but major risks lie ahead, according to both Mercer Canada’s latest pension health index and Aon’s latest median solvency ratio survey. Mercer’s index, which represents the solvency ratio of a hypothetical DB pension plan, increased from 101 […]
At the time of my last column in May, many pension plan sponsors were catching their breath after watching funding levels take a roller coaster ride. After a steep drop earlier in the year, funding levels were slowly recovering. However, market uncertainty remained and it wasn’t clear what was coming next. Thankfully the last few […]
With so much uncertainty on the horizon, should pension plan sponsors be preparing to operate in a deflationary or inflationary environment? In the short term, the economic environment will be deflationary, says Hugh O’Reilly, executive in residence at the Global Risk Institute, noting demand is down because people are staying home and not spending. “And […]
The first quarter of 2020 was rough for Ontarian defined benefit pension plans as they experienced the most significant quarterly decline in projected solvency ratios since December 2009, according to a new report by the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario. In particular, the median projected solvency declined to 85 per cent as of March […]
Financial markets are showing signs of concern about how well companies can weather the coronavirus economic crisis, the Bank of Canada said in a report outlining issues the pandemic is having on business and household debt. The central bank has spent the last two months making a flurry of policy decisions that include slashing the […]
Changes to Quebec’s pension legislation, including a move away from solvency funding requirements and the introduction of a cost-sharing model, against the backdrop of a low interest rate environment has had a major influence on the City of Montreal’s pension investment strategy. The City manages six plans under one pooled portfolio. The assets from all […]
With coronavirus causing market volatility and an increase in the size of solvency liabilities, pension plans are feeling the impact. One potential way for plan sponsors to ease the pain is by performing an early actuarial valuation to capture year-end 2019 numbers. Most Canadian jurisdictions require plans to file valuations every three years, however a […]