Never mind productivity; if you want to succeed in business it seems you have to dress the part. A survey of Canadian workers found that 37% believed those who wear casual clothes on Fridays will never make it into senior management. That should come as no surprise, as 22% said casually dressed workers were “slackers”. […]
The next time someone drives across north Toronto on the 407 ETR, they can take comfort that the tolls they pay will partly fund the Canada Pension Plan, thanks to an investment by the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB). The CPPIB has struck a deal to buy Sydney, Australia-based Intoll Group, for about $3 […]
Investment managers seeking a new asset class may want to chart a course for the high seas, as the shipping industry is providing fresh opportunity, according to a report from Mercer. In a paper titled “Investment Case: Shipping” Mercer explains how specialist funds are now able to buy up shipping assets at deflated prices. When […]
Canadian employers appear optimistic that the economy will firm up in 2011 and are backing that view up with larger projected salary increases, according to recent news from Towers Watson Data Services. In its 2010/2011 Salary Budget Survey Report, Towers Watson compared actual raises from 2009 to those budgeted for 2010, and those projected for […]
Employers in the U.K. may be underestimating the risks associated with poor data quality regarding their DB plan members, according to Aon Consulting. Aon Consulting’s latest Employer Survey found that 76% of employers said the quality of membership data is either of very low or low risk to their pension arrangements. The survey found that […]
Recessionary job cuts appear to be a thing of the past, at least in the minds of Canadian HR professionals. The biggest concern they have now is training and continuing education for the staff they have, according to a survey by OfficeTeam, a staffing service specializing in the temporary placement of highly skilled office and […]
North American life insurance companies are placing an added emphasis on retirement income products, according to a survey of their chief financial officers, conducted by Towers Watson. Nearly two-thirds of respondents (64%) said that retirement products have increased as a proportion of their firms’ product mix over the past year, while 50% said they expect […]
State Street has announced enhancements to its risk analytics and servicing tools for institutional investors, including portfolio reallocation tools, economic stress tests, and expanded investment coverage. These enhancements have already been fully integrated into the State Street Investment Analytics Dashboard. “These new capabilities provide clients with market-leading risk management solutions that support their analytics, portfolio […]
For a national securities regulator, the proposed Canadian Securities Regulatory Authority (CSRA) bears an uncanny resemblance to the current system of Balkanized regulation. The Canadian Securities Transition Office (CSTO) has issued its transition plan for the creation of the contentious regulator, and decentralization appears to be the key. Intended to provide consistent protection to investors, […]
Canadian publicly traded companies have only seven months to convert their accounting practices to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), and yet half of them are less than 60% of the way through the process, according to a survey sponsored by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). The new reporting regime comes into effect January 1, 2011, and will require […]