The Ontario Municipal Employees’ Retirement System is reporting a net investment return of negative 0.4 per cent — or a loss of $500 million — for the first half of 2022. During the period, the OMERS earned a net investment return of six per cent — or a gain of $6.7 billion — after reporting […]
While institutional investors are no strangers to established markets such as Europe and the U.S., the world’s emerging and frontier markets can provide diversification and opportunities for lucrative returns. Not surprisingly, events such as the coronavirus pandemic and a shifting geopolitical landscape are influencing these decisions in 2022 and beyond. In recent months, Russia’s invasion […]
The importance of risk management isn’t new for the majority of defined benefit pension plan sponsors and administrators. The impact of long-term interest rates, market volatility, changing demographics and increasing longevity, inflation concerns, geopolitical events and other large economic, environmental and social factors are all contributing to the need to manage the financial risks associated […]
With increased market volatility due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, central banks in the West looking to tighten monetary policies as the world begins emerging from the coronavirus pandemic and higher, more persistent inflation than anticipated, bond investors are in for a wild ride, said Samantha Klein, lead of institutional business for T. Rowe Price […]
While politics plays a role in most investment decisions, it tends to arise on a fairly localized basis, says Michael Craig, head of the asset allocation and derivatives teams at TD Asset Management Inc. In addition, its prominence as a factor usually rises and falls on a cycle, slipping easily off investors’ radar in times […]
The majority of institutional investors believe the Russian invasion of Ukraine will be the catalyst of a period of high inflation and low employment around the globe, according to new survey by London-based CoreData Research. The survey, which polled 200 global institutional investors, found about a fifth (18 per cent) of respondents believe the invasion […]
More workers may soon be able to stake some of their 401(k) retirement savings to Bitcoin, as cryptocurrencies crack even deeper into the mainstream. Retirement giant Fidelity Investments Inc. has launched a way for employees to put some of their 401(k) savings and contributions — potentially up to 20 per cent — directly in Bitcoin, […]
Nearly two years after the declaration of the global coronavirus pandemic and its subsequent impact on the worldwide economy, institutional investors are looking to the future with cautious optimism. Amid a recovering economy and rising inflation, pension plan sponsors are taking a long-term investment view and staying the course in the year ahead, while incorporating […]
Despite the low-yield environment, fixed income continues to play an important role for institutional investors looking to make their portfolios work harder in a risk-controlled fashion, said Jeffrey Moore, a portfolio manager at Fidelity Investments Inc., during a session at the Canadian Investment Review’s 2021 Global Investment Conference. “For the bond market to hurt, there needs […]
When the coronavirus pandemic shook up the investment landscape last spring, Canadian pension funds were also jostled by the shock wave, with the Alberta Investment Management Corp. and the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System among the hardest hit. And while the pandemic was an unprecedented event, such losses have raised the issue of whether Canadian pension […]