The Shareholder Association for Research and Education has filed multiple shareholder proposals related to decent work and expects to file more, with the aim of bringing this focus higher up North American companies’ corporate agendas. The term ‘decent work’ is used by the United Nations and the International Labour Organization, says Shannon Rohan, director of […]
With factor investing reaching high levels of popularity, a new paper by Scientific Beta is cautioning that a proliferation of new factors that aren’t academically validated could lead to unintended exposures and misunderstandings about risk exposures. “Investors can choose to rely on standard factors that have survived the scrutiny of countless empirical studies and have […]
While investors are familiar with stress-testing their portfolios for various economic scenarios from a bottom-up perspective, a new tool is now available to incorporate climate change into stress-testing scenarios from the top down. Ortec Finance, in partnership with Cambridge Econometrics, is launching a systemic climate risk scenario tool for institutional investors. It incorporates climate risks […]
The Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology pension plan has reached a going-concern funding status of 120 per cent as of Jan. 1, 2019, up from 118 per cent last year. Along with the increased funded status, the plan’s funding reserve rose from $2.3 billion to $2.6 billion. The CAAT’s funding policy includes six funding […]
While 17 per cent of current investments by large public corporations are green, fewer than five per cent of corporate green investments in 2017 were financed by certified green bonds, which have the potential to play a bigger role, according to a report by Corporate Knights and the Climate Bonds Initiative. The report, which covered […]
The Canadian Association of Pension Supervisory Authorities has released an update on pension plans using leverage. “What makes it of particular interest to pension regulators now, is that it is being used more commonly and more intensively by pension plans, principally as a component of investment strategies aimed at achieving better asset-liability matching (through higher […]
Does hiring sub-advisors abroad improve international mutual fund performance? Last Thursday night, a paper seeking to answer this question was awarded the CFA Society Toronto and Hillsdale Canadian Investment Research Award. The purpose of the award is to advance investment management through practitioner-relevant research in Canadian capital markets. “Our objective was always to try to […]
On March 1, 2019, Alberta’s Local Authorities Pension Plan gained independence from the government by becoming a jointly sponsored pension plan. “The history of LAPP is that the Minister of Finance of the province of Alberta has historically been the trustee of the pension fund and the administrator of the plan, and this new legislation […]
MSCI Inc. will be increasing the weight of China A-shares in its indexes by upping the inclusion factor from five to 20 per cent in three steps. “Stock Connect has proven to be a robust channel to access A-shares,” said Remy Briand, MSCI’s managing director and chairman of the MSCI Index Policy Committee, in a […]
In a move protecting its defined benefit pension promise for the long haul, commercial vehicle manufacturer Navistar Canada is purchasing more than $300 million in group annuity contracts. The transactions are with RBC Insurance and iA Financial Group and valued at $333 million. From May 1, 2019, the insurers will be responsible for administering pension payments […]