The European Association of Paritarian Institutions (AEIP) last week called for greater transparency and more performance data in the infrastructure sector.
These changes, according to the AEIP, could help attract more pension funds to the sector.
From Investments and Pensions Europe:
Infrastructure markets need to be more transparent, with greater emphasis placed on the development of sector benchmarks, according to the European Association of Paritarian Institutions (AEIP).
Setting out its views on infrastructure, the association said that while pension funds were long-term investors – and therefore well-suited to invest in the asset class – they first and foremost needed to abide by their fiduciary duties to members.
“The reality is that infrastructure represents a valuable asset class and for sure a viable option for long-term investors, but these latter face several hurdles to access it,” the AEIP’s paper noted.
It said the lack of comparable, long-term data was one of the hurdles facing investors and that the absence of infrastructure benchmarks made it difficult to compare the performance of the asset class.
It also identified an organisation’s scale as problematic to taking full advantage of the asset class.
“Direct investments, those that yield the most interesting returns, are the most difficult to pursue, as their governance and monitoring require skilled individuals and a strict discipline regulating possible conflicts of interests,” it said.
“National regulation does not always simplify direct investments, and pension regulators in some cases limit the use of the asset class in a direct or indirect way.”
The association called on governments to play their part in making infrastructure accessible.
“Often the lack of infrastructure investments is not due to a lack of projects but not finding the right match with investors,” the AEIP added. “Some form of standardisation might be investigated.”
Read the paper here.