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Investor Profile

CalSTRS asset liability study recommends…

The investment staff of the $170-billion Californian Teachers Fund, CalSTRS, will present new asset allocation recommendations to the board next week, with a reduction in fixed income and the adoption of a new “absolute return” category the likely outcome. The fund is in the final stages of the long process of its 2012 asset liability […]
Amanda WhiteSeptember 4, 2013
WPF Risk Summit

Countering cyber threats

Institutional investors need to be conscious of cyber threats, especially from the Chinese, who are interested in macroeconomic changes that may result in large amounts of money moving around, according to James Mulvenon, vice president of the defense group at the Center for Intelligence Research Analysis. Mulvenon says the risks to companies of their intellectual […]
Amanda WhiteAugust 28, 2013
WPF Risk Summit

Agency risk in US public funds a formula for disaster

Agency risk in public pension funds is a big problem waiting to surface, according to Britt Harris, chief investment officer of the Teachers Retirement System of Texas. “In terms of beliefs, you have to decide whether the pension system is a profit centre for beneficiaries or a political system to influence outcomes,” he says. “Also […]
Amanda WhiteAugust 28, 2013
WPF Risk Summit

Innovating investment beliefs

The concept of investment beliefs is the basis for strategic management and, while widely used in other parts of the world, is “innovative” from a US perspective, Allan Emkin, managing director of Pension Consulting Alliance, says. In a session at the Risk Summit, convened by World Pension Forum and Conexus Financial, publisher of conexust1f.flywheelstaging.com, Emkin […]
Amanda WhiteAugust 28, 2013
WPF Risk Summit

Hybrids: best of both worlds

The funding levels of US public pension funds, falling from 100 per cent in 2001 to 77 per cent now, is the result of bad governance, according to David Villa, chief investment officer of the $91 billion State of Wisconsin Investment Board (SWIB). He says irrational governance and imprudent management has resulted in the funding […]
Amanda WhiteAugust 27, 2013
WPF Risk Summit

US banking system needs structural reform

Continued use of quantitative easing is sowing the seeds of financial instability, according to Sheila Bair, former chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, who says that the 2008 crisis taught us a credit-driven economy is not sustainable. Bair has been an outspoken critic of quantitative easing and says there has been too much reliance […]
Amanda WhiteAugust 27, 2013
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