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All findings, interpretations, and conclusions of this
presentation represent the views of the author(s) and
not those of the Wharton School or the Pension Research Council.
© 2009 Pension Research Council of the Wharton School of the
University of Pennsylvania.
All rights reserved.
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Risk Budgeting at CPPIB: a Case Study
Reorienting Retirement Risk ManagementWharton School of
Business
Tracy LivingstoneSenior Advisor, Risk PolicyCPPIB
Sterling GunnVice President, Portfolio Risk and
AnalysisCPPIB
May 1, 2009
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rights reserved.
2
Outline
1. Key Messages2. CPP Primer3. CPPIB Risk Return Accountability
Framework4. Risk Budgeting: Beliefs vs. Reality 5. Risk Budgeting
at CPPIB6. The One Minute Summary (really)
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1. Key Messages
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4
Risk budgeting is not an off-the-shelf, one size fits all
solution. It has to be tailored to fit the firm.
Risk budgeting reinforces the alignment of active investment
decisions with total portfolio objectives
Implementing risk budgeting challenges an organization to
quantify its risk beliefs
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5
2. A CPP Primer
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6
CPP has evolved in response to demographic and economic
realities
Percent of YMPE
Percent of YMPE
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
1966
1969
1972
1975
1978
1981
1984
1987
1990
1993
1996
1999
2002
2005
2008
2011
2014
2017
2020
2023
2050
Legislated Pay-go
1966• CPP inception date• 10 year benefit phase-in• 3.6%
contribution rate
1974 - 83• Benefit
improvements• No rate changes
1987• Benefit improvements• Pre-set schedule of
rate increases to 10.1% in 2016
1997• Benefit reductions• Rapid rate increases to 9.9%
in 2003 instead of 7.35%• Increased funding• Fully fund new
benefits• “Fail-safe” financing formula• CPPIB established
We are here with a 9.8% sustainable
rate
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
1966
1969
1972
1975
1978
1981
1984
1987
1990
1993
1996
1999
2002
2005
2008
2011
2014
2017
2020
2023
2050
Legislated Pay-go
1966• CPP inception date• 10 year benefit phase-in• 3.6%
contribution rate
1974 - 83• Benefit
improvements• No rate changes
1987• Benefit improvements• Pre-set schedule of
rate increases to 10.1% in 2016
1997• Benefit reductions• Rapid rate increases to 9.9%
in 2003 instead of 7.35%• Increased funding• Fully fund new
benefits• “Fail-safe” financing formula• CPPIB established
We are here with a 9.8% sustainable
rate
11.4%
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CPP Reforms of 1997 created the CPPIB
Reform principles: inter-generational fairness, affordability
andSustainability
Results of broad consultations:• Canadians adamant that CPP
should be permanently “fixed”• Willing to shoulder the burden
through higher contributions• In return, insisted that there be no
government involvement with CPP
Assets
Government responded with a series of reforms to ensure the
longtermsustainability of the CPP:
• Modest reduction in benefits• Dramatically higher contribution
rates – 80% increase over 6 years• CPP assets were segregated from
government assets and revenues• CPP Investment Board (CPPIB) was
created to manage the assets• Fail-safe mechanism created to ensure
long-term sustainability
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3. CPPIB Risk/Return Accountability Framework
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CPPIB: Accountability for risk starts with the Board of
Directors, which uses two levers for governing CPPIB strategic
risk-taking
Board of Directors
Reference Portfolio
• Viable strategy of investing in low-cost, low complexity,
broadly diversified, public market indexes
• Degree of asset-liability mismatch implied in stewards
expression of risk tolerance – currently 65/35 equity/debt
• Risks: market, high quality counterparties
Active Risk Limit
• Allow additional assets to be “put at risk” to earn additional
returns from active management
• Additional “assets at risk” controlled by active risk limit
measured as 90% VaR over one year
• Risks: market, alpha, credit, liquidity
These two levers represent the two biggest investment decisions
made by the Board of Directors.
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CPPIB’s biggest risk: Adjustment Risk
Investment Returns(default-free rate;
equity risk premium,active return, etc.)
Economics(wage growth,inflation, etc.)
Demographics(fertility, longevity, etc.)
Adjustment Risk
CPPIB helpsreduce adjustment
risk through itsinvestment decisions
Must be considered when making
investment decisions, but beyond CPPIB
influence
Most factors driving a firm’s biggest risk – at CPPIB that’s
adjustment risk -- are beyond the firm’s control.
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CPPIB investment strategy seeks to add value by harvesting
better beta and earning alpha.
Expected Real Rate of Return
4.2 9.8
10.0
Illustrative (Not to Scale)
5.0
Expected Risk
Expected Real Rate of Return
4.2 9.8
Improved returns relative to CPP
Reference Portfolio
10.0
Illustrative (Not to Scale)
5.0
Expected Risk
Capturing Attractive Alpha
11
33
22 Building a Better Beta Portfolio
CPP Reference Portfolio
•
•
• 1
3
2
•
2 Building a Better Beta Portfolio• 22 Building a Better Beta
Portfolio•1 CPP Reference Portfolio• 11 CPP Reference
Portfolio•
Capturing Attractive Alpha3 Capturing Attractive Alpha33
Capturing Attractive Alpha
11
33
22 Building a Better Beta Portfolio
CPP Reference Portfolio
•
•
• 1
3
2
•
22 Building a Better Beta Portfolio• 22 Building a Better Beta
Portfolio•11 CPP Reference Portfolio• 11 CPP Reference
Portfolio•
Capturing Attractive Alpha33 Capturing Attractive Alpha33
TheoreticalEfficient Frontier
SustainableContributionRate (%)
Low CostLow ComplexityDiversification
Active Risk relative to CPP Reference Portfolio
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4. Risk Budgeting: Beliefs vs. Reality
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Risk budgeting assumes…
Most risk budgeting frameworks are based on idealized risk
budgeting beliefs that assume:
• risk can be measured and monitored regularly for each business
line
• each business line can maintain target risk level by adjusting
portfolio
• risks are comparable across business lines
• people are incented to abide by their risk budgets
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Three challenges to applying a risk budgeting framework to a
heterogeneous portfolio.
Investment portfolios can be a mixture of very different
strategies.• Overlay manager operating transparently on balance
sheet
• High frequency and high quality public market data provides
firm basis for quantifying risk• Short term investment horizon
• Pooled manager reports risk once a month• Pooled fund assessed
infrequently but relatively accurately• Medium term investment
horizon
• Portfolio of infrastructure positions valued annually• Private
equity risk exceedingly difficult to measure directly• Long term
investment horizon
Ability to measure risk varies greatly • Measure of total
portfolio risk cannot be better than weakest link (on a weighted
basis)• Most risk budgeting methodologies rely on availability of
high frequency, high quality data to
monitor risk usage• High frequency, high quality proxies often
used for ‘problem’ assets.• Accuracy of proxy to mimic asset varies
significantly• Character of risk can vary with investment
horizon.
Fair allocation and attribution of risk• Fair comparisons across
business lines presume such data exists for all opportunities•
Acceptance and use of proxies results in risk budgeting to proxies,
not actual assets• Risk investment horizon needs to be relevant to
all asset classes
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Some examples where reality can shatter idealized risk
beliefs
Hoped for idealization Reality Examples
Return Distributions
Normally distributed Fat tails, skews, time varying
Credit has asymmetric payoff
Price transparency Perfect, frictionless markets
Illiquid assets with infrequent valuation
Infrastructure
Risk measurement Perfect Limited sample sizes, use of
proxies
Large errors in estimating extreme percentiles
Availability of information
Frequent and accurate for all assets
Quality and frequency varies across asset classes
Some pooled funds report infrequently
Portfolio management
Maintain risk profile Difficult to rebalance illiquid
portfolios
Infrastructure portfolios
Incentives Emphasis on paying for successful risk taking
Emphasis on returns since returns are precise while risk is
fuzzy
Most of us
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5. Risk Budgeting at CPPIB
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Risk Budgeting is appropriate if you believe …
• Investors must take risk to have any expectation of earning
excess returns
• Risk is a constrained resource and its use needs to be
efficiently managed
• Compensation should be linked to risk adjusted return, not
rates of return
• Risk can be allocated and attributed fairly
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Risk budgeting supports alignment of management and investment
objectives
• Accountability – explicit statement of income and risk
expectations in performance contracts
• Transparency – outcome of investment decisions must be seen in
order to be compared with expectations
• Comparability – invest choices informed by risk means risk is
comparable and reconcilable across business lines
• Efficiency – total excess returns should be earned with as
little total active risk as possible.
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CPPIB is implementing risk budgeting as part of its risk return
accountability framework
Risk budgets are part of the annual business planning process, •
Achieving long run excess return target requires taking active
risk• Set expectations for amount of risk needed to achieve return
targets• Allocate risk to departments.• Effective diversification
leads to total risk budget being significantly
less than the sum of departmental risk budgets• Iterative
process balancing capabilities and objectives• Integral part of
performance contract• Set risk budgets where appropriate (discussed
later)
Regular monitoring of risk utilization vs. risk budgets can help
avoid pathological behaviour related to compensation cycle
• Success early in compensation cycle could lead to reduction in
risk to preserve compensation
• Failure late in compensation cycle could lead to excessive
risk taking in attempt to double down
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CPPIB currently sets a risk budget for Public Market alpha
sources, and communicates risk expectations for other opportunistic
investments.
Board Approved Active Risk Limit
Investment Planning Committee
Total Active Risk Expectation
Public Market Investments (Dept)
Risk Budget for
Private Investments (Dept)
Exceed PME benchmark
Real Estate Dept.Outperform benchmark
Opportunistic strategies. Opportunities reviewed to
determine rebalancing strategy. Benchmark used to transfer
beta risk to IPC, charge premium to business line
Sub portfolio
Risk budget
Sub portfolio
Risk budget
Sub portfolio
Risk budget
IPC Portfolio
Source o
f Opportunistic
Source of
Opportunistic
source of
,
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R1R2R3
R4
Risk budgeting requires performance contracts to consider
acceptable risk/return tradeoffs.
Active Risk
Exc
ess
Ret
urn
X
Range of acceptable risk
Range of excess return expectations
X: Target
Risk paid for if above this line (fixed information ratio)
Return expectations
Risk Budget Utilization Paid for risk Action required
Green Met Met Yes None requiredDark Green Over Met Yes Review
assumptionsBlue Met/over Under Yes Review assumptionspurple Under
Under Yes Review assumptionsYellow Met/over Over YesRed 4 Over Over
NoRed 1 Under Over NoRed 2 Under Met NoRed 3 Under Under No
Reduce risk or gain approval of increased risk budget
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6. The One Minute Summary
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• Risk budgeting is a tool for reinforcing alignment of
investment decisions with fund objectives
• Risk budgets link expectations of returns with levels of risk
accepted as necessary to earn those returns
• Risk budgeting at CPPIB is a work in progress
• Implementing a risk budgeting framework is challenging, and
the quality of the result is unlikely to be any better than your
least understood risk
• CPPIB believes implementing and maintaining our risk budgeting
framework is a good way of continuously improving our understanding
of risks
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Risk Budgeting at CPPIB: a Case Study
Sterling GunnVice President, Portfolio and Risk
AnalysisPortfolio Design and Investment ResearchTelephone: (416)
868-6673Email: [email protected]
Tracy LivingstoneSenior Advisor, Risk PolicyInvestment Risk
ManagementTelephone: (416) 868-5071Email: [email protected]
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25
About the CPP Investment Board The CPP Investment Board invests
the funds not needed by the Canada Pension Plan to pay current
benefits on behalf of 17 million Canadian contributors and
beneficiaries. In order to build a diversified portfolio of CPP
assets, the CPP Investment Board is investing in publicly-traded
stocks, private equities, real estate, inflation-linked bonds,
infrastructure and fixed income.
Based in Toronto, the CPP Investment Board is governed and
managed independently of the Canada Pension Plan and at arm's
length from governments. At March 31, 2008 the CPP Fund totaled
C$122.7 billion.
Sterling GunnSterling Gunn leads CPPIB’s Portfolio and Risk
Analysis team, supporting CPPIB asset liability modeling,
investment policies, strategic portfolio design, risk budgeting and
risk measurement.
He has over fifteen years of risk management experience in
capital and energy markets. Prior to joining the CPPIB in 2004,
Sterling was a manager at Ontario Power Generation. Before that,
Sterling worked at a major Canadian bank as a risk manager.
Sterling holds an MBA from the University of Toronto, an M. Sc.
in Experimental Space Science from York University and a B Sc. in
Physics and Applied Mathematics from the University of Toronto
Tracy LivingstoneTracy is the Senior Advisor in the Investment
Risk Management Group responsible for the risk policies and
standards of practice that govern the investment activities of the
CPP Investment Board, ensuring consistency and continued alignment
with the firm’s vision, mission and values, and the requirements of
the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board Act and Regulations. She
joined the CPP Investment Board in June 2005.
Tracy is a risk management professional with ten years
experience in capital markets and energy. She spent over five years
at Ontario Power Generation, working first on the trading floor in
Market Risk and then in Enterprise Risk Management. Prior to that,
she worked in the Risk Management Systems group at TD
Securities.
Tracy holds an MBA from Wilfrid Laurier University, and a
Financial Risk Manager designation from the Global Association of
Risk Professionals. She has an honours BA in Economics from the
University of Guelph.
Disclaimer slide for online PPTs 5.11.09All findings,
interpretations, and conclusions of this presentation represent the
views of the author(s) and not those of the Wharton School or the
Pension Research Council. © 2009 Pension Research Council of the
Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. All rights
reserved.
LivingstoneGunnRisk Budgeting at CPPIB: a Case Study
OutlineSlide Number 3Slide Number 4Slide Number 5CPP has evolved in
response to demographic and economic realitiesCPP Reforms of 1997
created the CPPIBSlide Number 8CPPIB: Accountability for risk
starts with the Board of Directors, which uses two levers for
governing CPPIB strategic risk-takingCPPIB’s biggest risk:
Adjustment RiskCPPIB investment strategy seeks to add value by
harvesting better beta and earning alpha.Slide Number 12Risk
budgeting assumes…Three challenges to applying a risk budgeting
framework to a heterogeneous portfolio.Some examples where reality
can shatter idealized risk beliefsSlide Number 16Risk Budgeting is
appropriate if you believe …Risk budgeting supports alignment of
management and investment objectivesCPPIB is implementing risk
budgeting as part of its risk return accountability frameworkCPPIB
currently sets a risk budget for Public Market alpha sources, and
communicates risk expectations for other opportunistic
investments.Risk budgeting requires performance contracts to
consider acceptable risk/return tradeoffs.Slide Number 22Slide
Number 23Risk Budgeting at CPPIB: a Case Study Slide Number 25