Healthy skepticism
Selecting environmental, social, and governance (ESG) funds is a way that ordinary citizens can invest in an ethical way. But what does the increased interest in ESG investing shown by institutional and private wealth clients really mean? Is it paying off? Are we at a watershed moment for structural change in the way investors allocate resources? The move to consider ESG investing came some years ago with scandals such as Enron, and continues with more scandals such as Volkswagen’s Dieselgate and Facebook’s meddlings, said Pedro Matos, a professor of finance at University of Virginia and the author of the CFA […]
Earthquakes kill, and so does bribery
“Bribery and corruption are not victimless crimes,” said Hilary Rosenberg, Managing Director and Global Head of Anti-Bribery & Corruption at Standard Chartered Bank. To drive home the point, she showed a brief video in which the pile of rubble from an earthquake is compared to a house collapsing because corruption allowed an unsafe building to be approved. Furthermore, corruption “can hinder economic progress and destroy people’s trust in their government,” Rosenberg said. She was the first of two speakers at the one-hour webinar “Corruption and Corporate Governance” sponsored by the Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP) on October 30, 2019. Anti-corruption policy […]
8 Ways to Look at Deforestation Risk
“Forests are the lungs of our land, purifying the air,” wrote Franklin D. Roosevelt. Looking at the economic side, what does the loss of forests mean to global markets? “Deforestation is a risk to the supply chain,” said Gabriel Thoumi, Director Capital Markets at Climate Advisers. “It puts billions of dollars at risk.” He was the first of four presenters at the May 4, 2017, webinar sponsored by the Global Association of Risk Professionals. He began with a summary of the activities of Chain Reaction Research, a group which has been actively assessing the sustainability of the supply chains of […]
Environmental Risk: 5 Lessons Learned
“Deforestation causes severe environmental damage,” said Hilde Jervan, chief advisor of the Council of Ethics of the Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG) of Norway. The scale of deforestation of tropical forests is large, and it is occurring within areas that are ecologically important, thereby aggravating the loss of biodiversity. The GPFG has strong ethical guidelines passed by the Norwegian Parliament in 2004. Jervan discussed these in light of the actual example of tropical deforestation. She was the second of four presenters at the May 4, 2017, webinar on Supply Chain Risk due to Deforestation sponsored by the Global Association of […]
“The Death of the Soul”
Do you long for the good old days? What, exactly, were “the good old days”? Depends on your time horizon. Today’s excerpt comes from page 11 of Economic Thought: A Brief History by Heinz D. Kurz, translated by Jeremiah Riemer (Columbia University Press, 2016). “According to Scholastic economic thought, the answer to the material hardship experienced by large segments of the [medieval European] population was not higher production and economic growth but self-restraint and the repression of needs. “The heart of Scholasticism was the doctrine concerning usury. A core argument was that money is sterile—it cannot “breed offspring.” Another argument […]
Three-Way Damage
Do you remember that cute VW video, “The Force”? The one where the little boy, dressed up as Darth Vader, can’t get a reaction from anyone or anything, even his dog, when he tries his super-powers on them? Then, Dad drives up in his VW Passat and the Vader-wannabe is, magically, able to get the lights to flash. The camera pans to parents looking out the window. Dad gives a conspiratorial grin as he clicks the remote control. On September 18, 2015, world markets were rocked by news that Volkswagen had knowingly falsified its emissions of toxic nitrogen oxides. The […]
Fixing Broken Windows 1. Game Changers and Whistleblowers
There is renewed focus on “pursuing small violations to prevent a culture where laws are not viewed as toothless guidelines,” said Amy Poster, Director for Risk and Regulatory Advisory Services at C & A Consulting LLC. She was the opening speaker in a four-part webinar panel titled “Fixing the Financial Industry’s Broken Windows” sponsored by GARP on March 11, 2014. Poster opened with a quote from a speech by Mary Jo White, Securities and Exchange Commission Chair: “The theory is that when a window is broken and someone fixes it – it is a sign that disorder will not be […]
Ain’t Misbehavin’. Part 2: What Makes a Good Committee?
“Good committees make good decisions,” said Arnold Wood, guest speaker at the CFA Society Toronto on June 3, 2013. On the TV show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, whenever the contestant turns to the crowd for help with an answer, the crowd is right 91 percent of the time, said Wood, who is president and CEO of Martingale Investments and a specialist in behavioural finance. The first part of his talk described common errors in individual thinking. But what makes a good committee? The composition of committees can be tricky. Too often, there is an appearance of diversity but […]
Ain’t Misbehavin’. Part 1: Overconfidence and Illusion
“It’s not our ability that makes us, it’s our choices.” With this quotation from Harry Potter, Arnold Wood, President and CEO of Martingale Investments proceeded to show how, in case after case, a good grasp of behavioural finance could explain the workings of the typical investment committee. Wood was speaking to a few dozen charterholders at a luncheon sponsored by the CFA Society Toronto at the historic National Club in Toronto on June 3, 2013. Wood wove his commentary around three themes: key habitual errors of decision-making, the composition of committees, and the behaviour of the chair of the investment […]
Financial Shenanigans: Forensic Accounting in Practice
There are ample opportunities for financial shenanigans in North American companies, according to Howard Schilit, founder of Schilit Forensics LLC and author of the classic Financial Shenanigans: How to Detect Accounting Gimmicks & Fraud in Financial Reports, first published in 1993 and now in its third edition. He led a mid-day seminar on characteristics of poor accounting practices at the CFA Society Toronto downtown offices on May 30, 2013. “Financial shenanigans are not necessarily illegal,” explained Schilit, but they are practices that “are not nice to perpetrate on someone” and could, if unchecked, slip into criminality. Given the extensive subject […]