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Programme

Nordic Pension Fund & Institutional Investors Conference

08.30    :    Registration and Coffee

08.55    :    Welcome & Opening Remarks

Trevor Cook, Managing Director, Specialist Pension Services

09.00   :      Session 1:  Introduction

Moderator: Henrik Nordling, Senior Advisor, Svensk Handel Forsäkringar

Sara Bernow, Partner & Global ESG Lead, McKinsey & Company

Sustainable investing as the new Normal: Impact on investments in Private Markets

Moving from Niche to Mainstream: what’s in it for investors? As investments in private markets are increasing how should you consider ESG factors?

  Axel Groß-Klußmann , Senior Associate Partner, Multi-Asset, Quoniam Asset Management

Risk Premia 2.0 - Evolution and Diversification: Is more Premia always Better?

• Is market-neutral a myth?
• Looking at different kinds of beta.
• Optimal diversification - how many risk premia?

10.10    :    Coffee/Tea

10.40     :    Session 2: ESG Considerations in Portfolios

Moderator: Gunnela Hahn, Head of Responsible Investments, Church of Sweden

Simon Cooke, Analyst Emerging Markets, Insight Investment

Debunking the ESG Myths in Emerging Market Debt

EM governance standards are so poor as to make ESG irrelevant.  Regardless, there is no ESG data available to analyse anyway. That is what many say. Is it the truth? No. ESG analysis, properly incorporated into the investment process, has the potential to generate consistent alpha.  It should be a structural component of EMD investing. Not something to ignore.

Gerold Permoser, CIO & Chief Sustainability Officer, Erste Asset Management

ESG Integration and its Pitfalls

Over the last years, Sustainable Investing developed from a market niche into a mainstream topic. Still, Sustainable Investing is an opaque topic and seen very differently within but also between countries and regional investment traditions. Consequently, very often discussions focus on the definition of Sustainable Investing and much less on how it can be done in practice. Contrary to this we would like to focus on implementation pitfalls in setting up a Sustainable Investment process. Given the broad scope of the topic will we focus on the topics of performance consequences and voting.

Meryam Omi, Head of Sustainability & Responsible Investment Strategy, Legal & General Investment Management

 Looking beyond Engagement in Index Funds - no Reason to be Passive

Index investors own the entire market, so they have the ultimate interest in protecting long term risks. This requires a change in focus for ESG, from outperforming companies (seeking alpha) to protecting overall market returns (beta). This talk will look at how, with improved data, index investors have more options than is usually assumed to serve as drivers of change, and how company engagement is imperative in raising standards for the entire market.

12.20    :     Drinks and Lunch

13.30    :     Session 3: ESG & Active Factor Exposure

Chaired by: Lauri Vaittinen, Senior Vice President Investment Solutions, Mandatum Life Insurance

Fong Yee Chan, Senior Product manager (Sustainable Investment), FTSE Russell

Integrating Sustainable Investment into Passive Portfolios -an Index Provider's Perspective

• Why is demand increasing for index based approaches to sustainable investment implementation?
• How can investor objectives on sustainable investment be incorporated into index design?
• What are the outcomes of sustainable investment index design?
• Outline how an index provider can engage the market and provide alignment with Asset Owner stewardship / engagement objectives.

Mark Fitzgerald, Head of ETF Product Management, Vanguard Europe

The Active Factor Exposure you didn’t Know you Had

This talk makes the case that factor investing is active investing and that strategies need to be actively implemented. It outlines the benefits and risks of active and passive implementation and will consider how to obtain consistent factor exposure and avoid factor delay. We will highlight how some factor strategies can deliver different factor exposure from what you thought.

14.45    :    Coffee/Tea

15.00     :   Session 4: Industry Update & ESG Panel

Erik Fransson, Director Fund Department, Swedish Pensions Agency

The New Premium Pension System

Examining the new reforms and the impact they will have on Swedish pension provision.

ESG International Panel: Developments & Challenges

Speakers of the day debate ESG and international changes and challenges.

Contributors include:

  John Howchin, Secretary General, The Council on Ethics for Sweden's AP Funds

Gerald Permoser, CIO & Chief Sustainability Officer, Erste Asset Management

Fong Yee Chan, Senior Product manager (Sustainable Investment), FTSE Russell

Meryam Omi, Head of Sustainability & Responsible Investment Strategy, Legal & General Investment Management

Sarah Bernow, Partner & Global ESG Lead, McKinsey & Company

16.00    :    Drinks Reception & Close of Conference

Purpose

This conference is for Nordic institutional investors, particularly pension funds, foundations, family offices and private banks, as well as selected institutional investors from further afield. 

Cost

The conference is by invitation only for pension funds and other institutional investors. If you are not already receiving an invitation please contact us. A limited number of Complimentary invitations are usually available to genuine pension fund representatives (executives and trustees) and other approved institutional investors. However, to ensure we have room for as many funds as possible, we have to limit free places to 2 attendees per approved organisation thereafter a reduced rate fee is payable per delegate. Furthermore, SPS always reserves the right of admission (free or paid) and our decision is final.

Sponsors

Erste Asset Management

FTSE Russell

Insight Investment

Legal & General Investment Management

Quoniam Asset Management

Vanguard Asset Management

Venue

7A Strandvägen  

114 51 Stockholm

Tel: +46(0)8-586 107 00

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