In legal circles, it has always been thought that crises breed litigation. And while that appears to be the case in the current crisis, it may not have been the case in the global financial crisis of 2008/9, as pointed out in a recent article by Eric Blinderman, the chief executive officer for the U.S. […]
As investors begin to digest the extended ramifications of the coronavirus pandemic, certain investment lessons are emerging. For one, investing globally provided diversification opportunities as different regions were impacted by the spread of the virus in different ways, according to a new paper from MSCI Inc. “The coronavirus pandemic started in Asia and gradually spread […]
It’s hard to believe that just recently, people weren’t cutting their own hair or binge-watching Tiger King. At the beginning of the year, defined benefit funding levels were at record highs and many pension plan sponsors were considering reducing their pension risk. Fast forward a few months and the novel coronavirus has turned the world […]
With volatility rattling public markets, fundraising for private equity deals took a tumble during the first quarter of 2020, according to a new report by the Callan Institute, which found fund closing dropped 39 per cent since the last quarter of 2019, while commitments were down 37 per cent. Many institutional investors suddenly find themselves over-allocated to […]
The Alberta Investment Management Corp.’s board of directors has released a statement outlining its response to the poor performance of its volatility trading strategy. In the wake of the coronavirus crisis, the strategy resulted in a loss of $2.1 billion or about two per cent of the AIMCo’s portfolio. “Oversight of AIMCo’s investment strategies and risk management is […]
The extent of fiscal and monetary intervention in the economy in response to the coronavirus crisis is likely to lead to deficits unlike anything seen before and result in asset prices faring better over the near term than the overall economy, said Bert Clark, president and chief executive officer of the Investment Management Corp. of Ontario, […]
The coronavirus crisis is putting new stresses on businesses as they grapple with cash flow and business continuity, but even amid such uncertainty, some employers are still looking to join defined benefit plans. The Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology pension plan is continuing to see interest in its DBplus offering, with the coronavirus crisis […]
Last August, I wrote about whether central banks were creating a financial bubble with their coordinated easing programs intended to spur economic growth and/or lift inflation. In January 2020, I wrote about the end of the economic cycle, the potential for a recession and what that might mean for positioning an investment portfolio. Little did I […]
Recent reports of significant investment losses on the part of the Alberta Investment Management Corp. are overblown, according to chief executive officer Kevin Uebelein. In recent weeks, many Canadian publications have pointed to problems with a volatility strategy that performed poorly amid the massive spike in volatility that equity markets have experienced due to the coronavirus […]
Canadian defined benefit plans saw a median return of negative 7.1 per cent in the first quarter of 2020, after enduring a historic period of market volatility and economic turmoil resulting from the global pandemic crisis, according to both the Northern Trust Canada universe and the RBC Investor and Treasury Services universe. Northern Trust Canada […]