As institutional investors have been hit hard by events of the past 18 months, there has been a surge of interest in the adoption of an additional, mid-term, time frame in which to provide investment
targets. Watson Wyatt believes pension funds should allocate between 5 and 15 per cent of their risk budget to dynamic asset allocation.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is currently considering pay-to-play activities and will report back on any proposed action in the next few weeks, according to its chairman Mary Schapiro, speaking via video at the annual International Corporate Governance Network conference this week.
Pension funds should demand an overhaul in the product offerings of funds managers and change the terms of mandates to incorporate environmental, social and governance issues in portfolios, according to Colin Melvin, chief executive of Hermes Equity Ownership Services, who pointed to a number of funds in the UK, including the owner of Hermes, BT Pension Scheme, considering such action.
The financial crisis has challenged pension funds to rethink standard asset allocation models, but as Jonathan Armitage, head of US equities at Schroders observes, a lot of investors are questioning whether they need to react.
A new report commissioned by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, has found environmental, social and governance investment criteria in emerging
markets are being embraced by most of the asset management community despite the economic crisis.
Three of Europe’s largest institutional investors have teamed up to investigate the way environmental issues are assessed and managed by real estate companies.