World’s Largest Pension May Become More Transparent on Stock Holdings

Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) is considering disclosing more details on its stock portfolio in an effort to boost transparency at the fund.

The GPIF is in the midst of ramping up its allocation to stocks; any details made public would be of interest and consequence to the market.

From Reuters:

An executive of Japan’s trillion-dollar public pension fund said the fund is considering disclosing details of its stock holdings in a bid to enhance transparency, information that could potentially move market prices when released.

The remark by Hiromichi Mizuno, chief investment officer of the Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF), comes amid concerns that the government may wield influence over corporate management as the fund boosts its allocated weighting of stock holdings.

“We are considering unveiling how much shares (the GPIF) holds in what companies,” Mizuno told a panel meeting of experts on corporate governance at the Financial Service Agency on Thursday.

Such a move would reveal investment trends by the mammoth public fund and could potentially shift market sentiment when made public.

GPIF manages $1.19 billion in assets and is the world’s largest pension fund.