Finland’s Varma has begun using Ortec Finance’s Pearl solution to improve its investment performance management.

Varma wanted to improve their existing performance measurement capabilities to cover all the decision-making levels and decisions made within the investment organisation, and to distribute the performance data within the organisation in a flexible and efficient way. The solution aims to deal with complexities when assessing the effectiveness of currency overlay management, maintain a portfolio reporting structure, drill down into constituent-level benchmarks, composites and attributes, and extract performance data through APIs to enhance reporting processes and capabilities.

Dutch pension fund ABP has revealed that its current funding ratio was 116.7 per cent at the end of October.

Meanwhile, the pension fund’s policy funding ratio, which is the average current funding ratio from the previous 12 months, was 113.7 per cent. At the end of November, ABP is expected to make a decision on whether to increase pensions from 1 January 2024. Under current rules, the policy funding ratio must be above 110 per cent to increase pensions, but must also take into account the rate of inflation.

The UK’s Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC) has invested GBP 50m to develop 125 affordable and shared ownership homes.

The investment will be funded with a combination of internal debt and equity. The development was made possible through a GBP 4.9m grant from the Mayor of London’s Affordable Housing Programme. This is the first investment as part of a long-term partnership with London Square Group and Square Roots. PIC is aiming to invest GBP 500m over the coming years to develop affordable homes to help alleviate the housing shortage in Greater London, whilst providing cash flows to back the pensions of PIC’s policyholders.

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