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Asset Allocation

New York State Pension Invests Over $2.6 Billion in Alts in December

The Common Retirement Fund allocates nearly half of the month’s commitments to real estate investments.

By Michael Katz



The $279.7 billion New York Common Retirement Fund committed more than $2.6 billion to alternative investments in December 2021, nearly half of which was allocated to four real estate funds.

The state pension fund earmarked $400 million to the Cortland Growth and Income Fund from Cortland Partners LLC. The open-end fund focuses on acquiring and operating market-rate, well-located multifamily assets with durable, stable, recurring income and strong capital expansion in U.S. growth markets.

Another $300 million was committed to the Blackstone Real Estate Partners Asia III LP fund from The Blackstone Group. The fund aims to build a diversified portfolio of real estate and real-estate-related assets in the Asia Pacific region. The JPM Star Lake Fund IV, LLC from JP Morgan will also get $300 million from the pension fund.  Star Lake IV, which is sponsored by J.P. Morgan Real Estate, is a diversified closed-end fund-of-one focused on value-add opportunities in the U.S.

And the pension will also invest $300 million in Ventas, Inc.’s Ventas Life Science and Healthcare Real Estate Fund, an open-end fund focusing on core health care real estate investments, such as life science and medical office buildings.

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The biggest commitment to a single fund during the month—$750 million—went to Brookfield Asset Management Inc.’s Brookfield Global Transition Fund, L.P. under the pension’s real assets portfolio. The fund seeks to invest in high-quality assets and businesses where it can exercise significant control or influence to generate a measurable positive environmental impact and strong financial returns.

Under its opportunistic absolute return strategies portfolio, the pension fund earmarked $340 million for the Capital Constellation L.P.  from Capital Constellation LLC. The fund makes structured equity investments in growth-oriented alternative asset managers.

Another $250 million has been committed to private equity investments, including a $150 million commitment to Apollo Global Management’s Apollo Impact Mission Fund, which will target late-stage investments among “impact-aligned investment themes,” such as economic opportunity, education, health, and safety and wellness. The other $100 million will go to the Insight Partners XII Buyout Annex Fund from Insight Partners. The fund will invest in buyout transactions, targeting technology companies in North America, Europe and Israel.

In contrast, the pension fund’s investment activity was far more subdued during January, when the fund only added $188.7 million to the the Lisanti Capital Growth account under its global equity portfolio.

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Home > News > Regulation > Biden Digital Asset Executive Order Aims to Tame Crypto
Regulation

Biden Digital Asset Executive Order Aims to Tame Crypto

White House provides guidelines that seek to harness the positive aspects of crypto while mitigating its abuse.

By Michael Katz



President Joe Biden has signed an executive order outlining an approach to taming the rapidly growing digital asset marketplace in a way that aims to address risks posed by cryptocurrencies while also taking advantage of their benefits.

The order lays out a national policy for digital assets that is divided among six key priorities: consumer and investor protection; financial stability; illicit finance; U.S. leadership in the global financial system and economic competitiveness; financial inclusion; and responsible innovation.

Digital assets, including cryptocurrencies, had a market cap of more than $3 trillion as of November, up from $14 billion just five years earlier, according to the White House. It also said that surveys indicate approximately 40 million Americans have invested in, traded or used cryptocurrencies.

Among other measures, the order seeks to:

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  • Protect U.S. consumers, investors and businesses by directing the Treasury Department to assess and develop policy recommendations concerning the digital asset sector and changes in financial markets.
  • Encourage regulators to ensure sufficient oversight and safeguard against any systemic financial risks posed by digital assets.
  • Protect U.S. and global financial stability and mitigate systemic risk by asking the Financial Stability Oversight Council to identify and mitigate systemic financial risks posed by digital assets, and to develop policy recommendations to address regulatory issues.
  • Mitigate the illicit finance and national security risks posed by the abuse of digital assets by coordinating relevant government agencies to ensure international frameworks and partnerships are aligned and responsive.
  • Explore a U.S. central bank digital currency by assessing the technological infrastructure and capacity needs to create one.

“We’ll be guided by consumer and investor protection groups, market participants and other leading experts,” U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen said in a statement. “Treasury will work to promote a fairer, more inclusive and more efficient financial system, while building on our ongoing work to counter illicit finance, and prevent risks to financial stability and national security.”

According to Aaron Klein, a senior fellow at think tank the Brookings Institution, the executive order should be looked at as more as a call to action than a specific game plan.

“The executive order lays out a road map for the administration’s future actions,” Klein wrote in a blog post on Brookings’ website, adding that it “balances the potential benefits from digital assets with a litany of concerns and risks.”

Klein also said that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine “likely had an impact on how those risks are considered, elevating the importance of national security and foreign policy concerns in the evolution of the global payment system.”

Although it  isn’t known how much the invasion of Ukraine influenced the order’s national security objectives, Klein said that the agencies involved must consider “at a much higher level” the national security, foreign policy and international sanctions ramifications of crypto and digital assets.

“Those who have concerns about crypto’s role in this space will have stronger bureaucratic and policy grounds to voice those positions within and throughout the interagency process,” Klein wrote.

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