Investors were already feeling the pressures of historically low interest rates. Then came the coronavirus pandemic. The Bank of Canada cut its overnight interest rate at the end of March to an all-time low of 0.25 per cent and announced a plan to spend $5 billion per week on Government of Canada bonds. This came […]
In 2009, when Vincent Morin walked through the doors of Air Canada as the vice-president of asset allocation and strategy for its investment division, he faced a tough situation. The company’s eight defined benefit pension plans, which buy units of a single master trust fund, were facing a $2.6 billion deficit. In the following years, […]
With crude oil futures contracts crashing through the floor into negative territory at the beginning of the week, what opportunities are opening up for institutional investors? Panic set in on commodity trading floors on Monday because physical storage options for oil were filling up fast, with much less demand for petrol from consumers due to […]
While many organizations are grappling with how to incorporate artificial intelligence into their investment or back-office processes, the Alberta Investment Management Corp. has found a way to do it that’s scalable and has potential for commercialization. The AIMCo started down this journey because it realized that if it didn’t adopt AI and machine learning, it […]
Close to a quarter (23 per cent) of institutional investors said they plan to reduce their cash balances, according to a new survey by BlackRock Inc. For fresh allocations, private markets remain the favourite by a wide margin. Indeed, more than half (55 per cent) of investors said they intend to up allocations to real […]
The current market environment continues to push institutional investors into alternative assets, seeking both yield and diversification, but not all options are created equal. Hedge funds, according to JP Morgan’s alternative asset outlook, will gain further traction as new technologies capture investor attention in 2020. “As tech spending continues across industries, our managers anticipate opportunities as […]
While the amount of alternative assets in institutional portfolios is holding relatively steady, the type of investments making up allocations to alternatives are shifting. Current allocations to alternatives rose just one per cent to 25 per cent since 2018, according to the latest research from EY. While hedge funds remain the largest contributor to the […]
While year-end incentive payments have been on the rise over the past few years, 2019 could be different. Analysis from Johnson Associates, Inc., a compensation consulting firm, found Wall Street year-end incentive pay, including cash bonuses and equity awards, is expected to decline by five per cent for 2019, compared to last year. “All signs […]
There are many reasons for pension plans to consider exposure to liquid alternatives, but the first step is understanding the asset class. Simply, liquid alternatives are alternative assets, such as currency, commodities or emerging market debt, which are available in liquid forms, as well as alternative strategies like long-short investment strategies, says Michael Sager, vice-president […]
It might seem like hedge fund managers having “skin in the game” by investing personal capital in their funds would be a good thing for outside investors seeking to enter positions alongside them. But there can be negative consequences, according to a paper co-authored by Arpit Gupta, an assistant professor of finance at the Leonard […]