This second of a series of seven papers co-authored by M. Nicolas J. Firzli and David Weeks looks at the notions of private markets – PE, VC, private debt and infrastructure – and the "quest for yields" in a low interest rates environment, which where discussed at two recent global...

This paper co-authored by M. Nicolas J. Firzli and David Weeks looks at the notions of long-term asset allocation and the ‘quest for yields’ from the perspective of AUS, European and North American pension investors and board members (trustees), which where discussed at two recent global...

This paper co-authored & edited jointly by M. Nicolas J. Firzli, David Weeks and the Hon. Nicholas Sherry looks at the twin notions of asset ownership and EESG-driven investment in relation to the emerging financial policy agenda of the 47th G7 Summit (Carbis Bay Summit) from the perspective of...

The sixth annual World Pensions Forum was held on 23-24 February 2017 at the Queen's House in the Royal Borough of Greenwich.Over 120 representatives attended: from pension and sovereign funds, central banks and government agencies including financial regulators. Topics discussed included...

The authors of this article, Nicolas Firzli, WPC, David Weeks, AMNT, and the Hon. Nick Sherry, SEF, co-chaired the main financial roundtable during the COP21/Paris Agreement conference: the Paris Climate Finance Roundtable (CFR) , alongside Dr. Jeffrey Sachs, Director, Center for Sustainable...

French Abstract: Nicolas Firzli nous fait partager certains des travaux menés par le World Pensions Council (WPC) et résume ici une partie des interventions du G7 Pensions qui s'est tenu fin août dernier, en marge du Sommet du G7 de Biarritz. Il livre des pistes de réflexions précieuses...

Rising tensions in the Yellow Sea, a festering ‘Migrant Crisis' in Europe and Africa and resurgent antagonisms in the Persian Gulf are further threatening the Post-War social contract bequeathed by President Truman, Gen. Marshall and Gen. Eisenhower: praetorian Midwestern pragmatists whose...

English Abstract: Following the COP21 Summit, we've reached a point in economic history where real change can be expected – even if policy makers are unable or unwilling to curb the activities of oil companies in the United States… It's likely oil companies won't be in a position to reverse...

The year 2017 saw the unravelling of the prevailing order that had dominated the French political scene since the late 1950s (the end of the Fourth Republic). For nearly sixty years (1958 – 2017), the authoritarian centre-right Gaullists shared France's ‘fromage' (cushy public jobs,...

The investment choices of large asset owners such as pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and endowments, are, to a large extent ‘guided’ and pre-determined by the systematic use of old- fashioned indices or benchmarks designed by a small set of Anglo- American ‘index providers’ –...