Some of the country’s largest pension funds want the federal government to eliminate a rule that can make investment strategies more complex and sometime put them at a disadvantage regarding takeovers, a report says.
Reuters says that the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System are lobbying to have a rule contained in the Pension Benefits Standards Act, 1985 removed because it is out of date and pension funds are much more larger than they were two decades ago.
The rule states that pension funds are not allowed to elect more than 30% of the directors of a public or private company they invest in, but it doesn’t limit them from buying more than a 30% stake in the company.
Funds have created intricate financial structures to get around the rule, but to set them up can be expensive and make it harder to compete with other bidders for the same company.
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