How has the ‘Your Future, Your Super’ test changed Australia’s pension funds?
In the latest AOX Trends Report video, editor Damian Fantato talks to APAC deputy editor Stefan Kostarelis about the ‘Your Future, Your Super’ performance test, how it has changed Australia’s pension funds and what the other countries considering similar processes should bear in mind.
How are South Africa’s pension funds handling their domestic market’s concentration?
South Africa’s pension funds are required to invest more than half their assets in their domestic market, but over the past 10 years the number of listings on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange has fallen by half. How are they addressing this?
Pension funds come round to VC managers’ thinking on fees and fund-of-funds
Discussions around performance fees "have moved forward significantly over the last 12 months" and are "much more acceptable" to large pension funds, according to Stephen Budge of LCP
German pension funds face bill of up to $870mn over cum-ex scandal
A survey by Germany’s financial regulator Bafin found 21 insurance companies and pension schemes were affected by at least one transaction in the scandal which involved tax loopholes on dividend payments
Are Australia’s pension funds stuck in a performance testing loop?
Australia’s pension system has managed to weed out underperforming funds and consolidated its system around fewer, higher-performing MySuper products - but has it found itself stuck in a loop it can’t escape?
How Diego Marrero disrupted Peru’s pension fund market
In the 12 years Diego Marrero spent has AFP Habitat Peru’s chief investment officer, it went from managing no money at all to being one of the country’s four biggest private pension fund managers
How the $47bn Railpen fund plans to get out of its property pickle
The Railways Pension Scheme has found itself with a bill of about $413mn for remediation work to its property portfolio due to fire safety issues which were first discovered in 2019. But the fund has finally come up with a solution
How are South Africa’s pension funds using their new-found freedom to invest in alternatives?
South Africa’s pension funds have increased investment in alternatives following legislation which took effect in 2023, but how are they going about doing so?
How Australian super fund avoided the SaaSpocalypse
Marina Pasika, head of private markets at the $75bn Rest super fund, explains why her fund deliberately avoided traditional software managers when building out its private equity programme
How the Banco Master scandal could affect Latin America’s pensions
In the latest AOX Trends Report video, editor Damian Fantato talks to Latin America reporter Marina Benitez about how pension funds in the region are changing, the specific factors which are driving them to invest in private markets, and how the Banco Master scandal is could affect what happens next
Pension funds edge into UK venture capital as growth funding gap persists
Self-driving car start-up Wayve has looked beyond the UK for its capital backing, underlining the limited depth of domestic late-stage funding
How can Japan’s GPIF fulfil government demands?
Following her landslide election victory earlier this year, Japan’s prime minister Sanae Takaichi views the $1.8tn Government Pension Investment Fund as a tool to get the country’s economy moving by investing domestically
AOX debate: Is pensions nationalism here to stay?
Across the world, governments are gently encouraging their pension funds to invest in their domestic economies to stimulate growth - a phenomenon referred to as ‘pensions nationalism’. Why is this happening, is it necessarily a bad thing and what, if anything, can reverse it?
Does Japan’s idiosyncratic investment approach work?
Many of Japan’s pension funds adopt the same, somewhat ideosyncratic, investment approach as the $1.9tn Government Pension Investment Fund. This yielded strong results last year, so should other asset owners take note?
Larger UK DB schemes prefer to run on but growth assets are off the menu
Upwards of two-thirds of large DB pension schemes are pursuing run-on strategies, but the preference is to use surplus funds to enhance member benefits
How the EU plans to get more pensions invested in stocks
Petra Hielkema, chair of the EU’s pensions regulator Eiopa, wants to address the fact that EU citizens collectively hold around $39tn in savings but around a third of this is sitting in bank deposits - and she hopes reforms to pan-European pension products will help
Major super funds post near-identical returns but tell different stories
Regulatory settings have nudged some of Australia’s largest superannuation funds into similar listed portfolios, so differentiation now happens in unlisted assets, where disclosures ranged from detailed to silent.
Why is everyone copying Sweden’s pension system?
Germany’s pension commission has recently recommended moving to a Swedish pension system, and the Finnish government has appointed an independent expert to explore doing the same thing
Is the UK government’s push for pension consolidation in tension with its other aims?
In the first ever AOX Trends Report video, editor Damian Fantato talks to UK reporter Georgina McNamara about the UK government’s push for greater pension consolidation and whether the drive for bigger pension funds is in conflict with its desire to see pension funds invest ever-greater sums of money in British private equity.
Banco Master’s collapse proves problematic for Brazilian pensions
The Brazilian Central Bank shut down Banco Master in 2025 after months of liquidity stress, rule breaches and a federal fraud investigation. This has kicked off a chain reaction which is causing problems for some of Brazil’s pension funds