It has certainly been an interesting start to the year. Equity markets seemed to be on an inexorable rise to record heights, with some suggesting that these lofty valuations were due for a pull back.  As I write this blog, markets continue to swing around. One thing that is for certain – volatility has returned, and in some ways, returned with a vengeance.  We saw the collapse of Carillion and a run on Capita – but the question is, how many more companies with similar pension fund deficits like this are out there?

The top 10 search terms from December and January reveal what the mallowstreet community was thinking about.

Despite volatile markets and a huge pension fund likely falling into the Pension Protection Fund, what I find the most striking is that ESG / Sustainability remained the top search term over the past eight weeks.

More telling, as we were looking over the most popular content from the past eight weeks, we noticed that about half of the most popular papers published on mallowstreet were focused on this topic. It is no wonder the Responsible Investment and Sustainability forum is currently one of the most read and followed on mallowstreet.

If the start of 2018 is anything to go by, it is going to be a busy, busy year.  We will be starting some very interesting work on Sustainability and Responsible Investment later this year. If you want more information, just drop me a line.