Russia’s finance ministry is proposing the nations $191 billion dollar wealth fund adopt environmental, social, and governance principles in their investment selection. While this puts him inline with the Russian central bank, Russia’s Economic Minister, and the rest of the globe he might face opposition from Putin. ESG buys wouldn’t be adopted until 2024 at the earliest and would work towards the country’s 2060 goals of being carbon neutral, but currently Russia is far from those objectives. They are the world’s 4th largest greenhouse gas producer and Putin sees their energy production as key to their global powers.

FINSUM: Russia is planning to ramp up its oil and gas production in the face of the global shortage, so don’t expect them to jump all in on ESG too quickly.

Outsourced chief investment officers got a huge boost from the pandemic, and that trend may be here to stay. According to a study by Cerulli Associates OCIO will grow at a rate of 5% annual for the next 5 years. In the year after the pandemic started the AlphaNasdaq OCIO index grew by 30.69%. OCIO's multi-asset class strategy combines everything from traditional stocks and bonds to sectors like real estate, and this multi asset strategy improves efficiency and tailor risk tolerances. In house investment teams have a harder time competing against OCIO’s in a low rate environment as they can’t seem to identify the returns and lack the connection OCIO’s have.

FINSUM: Specialty skill sets are the predominant employment trend in the 21st century and OCIO brings an expertise that will solidify their part of the financial industry in the years to come.

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