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The British government’s local government pension scheme reforms have been largely carried out with the intention of creating bigger pools of capital to grow the UK economy. But there is a tension at the heart of these plans: while the government wants to replicate Canada’s Maple 8, which operate like private equity houses to invest globally, it is also instructing the LGPS to invest locally.
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The British government’s local government pension scheme reforms have been largely carried out with the intention of creating bigger pools of capital to grow the UK economy. But there is a tension at the heart of these plans: while the government wants to replicate Canada’s Maple 8, which operate like private equity houses to invest globally, it is also instructing the LGPS to invest locally.
Last month, Reform UK’s deputy leader Richard Tice announced that a Reform government could transform the UK Local Government Pension Scheme into a £500bn sovereign wealth fund, while scrapping defined benefit pensions for incoming civil servants. But could the LGPS actually be converted into a sovereign wealth fund?
The British pension system is trying to reconfigure itself with something of a Canadian flavour, that means bigger funds, investing in private assets through in-house teams. We speak to Leandros Kalisperas, chief investment officer at the British Business Bank, about how pension funds in England and Wales can get there.
Indirect crypto exposure among Dutch companies, institutions and households has grown rapidly, with Dutch pension funds holding the largest shares. But with wariness around the asset persisting, those who have committed remain elusive.
Ryan Boothroyd, Border to Coast Pension Partnership’s head of external management, explains to AOX how the changing macroeconomic environment since 2022 means he will start taking a different approach to selecting the global equity managers he works with.
Calpers chief investment officer Stephen Gilmore explains to AOX what stage the $563bn pension fund is at in its transition to the total portfolio approach and how it is handling some of the potential risks
Given the rising tide of economic nationalism, is there anything we can learn from the extent to which pensions around the globe invest in their national economies? Perhaps there is.
Two of Britain’s local government pension scheme funds explain why they felt ‘soft government pressure’ to join a pool which was not their first choice
The US Senate is considering an anti-ESG retirement bill which will force funds to only consider financially material questions when they pick their investments. Will this change what pension fund portfolios actually look like?
Defined contribution schemes in the UK are becoming more confident in seeking returns away from public markets, according to LCP
PwC expects 2026 to be a “jumbo” year for pension buyouts in the UK asset owner space, with more than £50bn of transaction volumes forecast. But how is that changing the way insurers, on the other side of the transaction, invest?
Canadian prime minister Mark Carney won last year’s election in part due to economic nationalism in response to US tariffs. But is this the right approach to the country’s widely-respected pension funds?
Aberdeen City Council is taking Federated Hermes to court over an investment in Swedish wind farms which, it alleges, lost $117mn or 83 per cent of the total investment
The $25bn AkademikerPension fund is selling off its US Treasury holdings, a decision it insists is rooted in the American government’s “poor” finances rather than geopolitics
UK local government pension schemes are being ‘essentially forced’ to pool their management ahead of the April 1 deadline - but not everyone is happy about it
As the UK government pushes for pension scheme consolidation, dreaming of economies of scale and a dearth of domestic private investment, we look at the Netherlands and Australia for clues as to what that might look like
Outgoing New York City comptroller Brad Lander has told the city’s pension systems to fire BlackRock over its climate track record. This has not gone down well with the world’s largest asset manager
Steve Hodder, a partner at LCP, said the proportion of the gilt market owned by defined benefit schemes was “quite frightening” - particularly given the number of DB schemes closing and the large amount of buy-out activity
People’s Pension, which runs £38bn in assets, is aiming to align its investments with the Paris Agreement goal of keeping global warning below 1.5C but some US asset managers are pivoting away from ESG investments
Asset managers will need to demonstrate a commitment to good governance as defined contribution master trusts consolidate in time for 2030, according to Jonathan Lipkin, director for policy, strategy and innovation at the Investment Association.
The Northern Ireland Local Government Officers’ Superannuation Committee is weighing return potential against environmental concerns following its recent switch to an emerging market equity tracker fund.
Natural capital investments are finding favour among major asset owners, according to data from Gresham House and AOX’s own sister publication MandateWire. We hear from two asset owners on what’s driving their interest in the sector.
The first chief executive of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan told AOX forcing funds to invest in their domestic economy usually results in ‘suboptimal’ returns
With new regulation enabling multi-employer collective defined contribution pension schemes expected to be finalised this month, CDC is attracting growing interest from pension providers and employers
The leader of Derbyshire County Council, which is now controlled by the right-wing populist Reform UK, tells AOX why they are shaking up how the pension scheme he now controls is invested
Dan Mikulskis, chief investment officer at The People’s Partnership - which provides one of the UK’s largest master trusts, has recently completed a transition of its asset ownership model which involved building a team of specialists
In the 1990s the UK pension funds and UK insurers accounted for just over half of all UK quoted shares but according to ONS data that has now dwindled to just 4.2 per cent. What happened?
Last year Royal Mail became the first UK company to launch its own collective scheme. Is CDC here to stay?
So far the Scottish government has not issued a pooling mandate, but whether the UK government’s pension reform agenda fails to make it north of the border remains to be seen
British pensions minister Torsten Bell is worried about conflicts of interest in the professional trustee and investment consultants markets