Key Takeaways
- • Risk leaders from large pension funds, speaking at the Pensions & Investments WorldPensionSummit in The Hague on Nov. 5, 2026, stressed that rehearsed playbooks, clear governance and adequate liquidity buffers are essential to managing crises.
- • Rest Super's chief risk officer Gemma Kyle said the 2025 cyberattack on Australian pensions, which coincided with U.S. tariff announcements, took more than a month to resolve and was managed through a centralized command structure and practiced playbooks.
- • The Pension Protection Fund (£31.5 billion / $42.4 billion) credited ample, clearly defined liquidity buffers with allowing it to meet capital calls quickly during the 2022 U.K. gilt market volatility.
- • APG (€639 billion / $715 billion) warned that crisis actions in one area must not create larger risks elsewhere, a point framed around geopolitical risk.
- • Panelists also cited defense-sector investing as a shifting allocation theme in Europe and the total portfolio approach as a framework for agility in volatile periods.
Summary
Risk management leaders from several large pension funds told attendees at the Pensions & Investments WorldPensionSummit in The Hague, Netherlands, on Nov. 5, 2026, that crisis plans are only as effective as the number of times they have been rehearsed. The panel, titled "Tail events and tipping points: preparing portfolios for the extreme," featured risk executives from funds ranging from a £31.5 billion ($42.4 billion) U.K. fund to a €639 billion ($715 billion) Dutch manager, according to the reporting by Pensions & Investments.
Gemma Kyle, chief risk officer at AUD 115 billion ($80 billion) Rest Super in Australia, described a cyberattack that targeted Australian pensions in 2025 by using identity information scraped from the internet to access large numbers of member accounts. The attack led the funds to briefly lock member accounts just before U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff announcements roiled global markets. Kyle called the period a "perfect storm" that took more than a month to fully resolve. She identified three lessons: rapid establishment of a crisis management group, centralized command and control for clear communication, and a decision-making hierarchy led by protecting member funds, supported by playbooks the team had practiced. Kyle also said "defensible decision making" helps manage legal and regulatory challenges that can follow a crisis.
Dana Grey, chief governance, risk and legal officer at the Pension Protection Fund, cited the importance of ample and clearly defined liquidity buffers during the extreme volatility in the U.K. gilt market in 2022. The PPF, which backs defined benefit plans when U.K. companies become insolvent, maintained substantial liquidity so it could respond quickly to capital calls. Annemarie Mijer, executive board member and chief finance and risk officer at APG, cautioned during a geopolitical risk discussion that actions taken in one area should not create a larger risk in another.
In a separate session on defense investing, panelists including Anne Gram, a board and committee member for several institutional funds including Denmark's ATP (which has $104 billion in AUM, according to Global SWF), said geopolitical developments have shifted the debate from simply investing in weapons to defending democratic values, and that greater willingness to invest in military contractors can carry benefits for members beyond financial returns. Separately, Genevieve Hayman, senior manager for macrosystems and foresight at the CFA Institute, argued that the total portfolio approach provides investment teams the agility to make in-the-moment decisions within a fund's broader holdings.
Gemma Kyle, chief risk officer at AUD 115 billion ($80 billion) Rest Super in Australia, described a cyberattack that targeted Australian pensions in 2025 by using identity information scraped from the internet to access large numbers of member accounts. The attack led the funds to briefly lock member accounts just before U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff announcements roiled global markets. Kyle called the period a "perfect storm" that took more than a month to fully resolve. She identified three lessons: rapid establishment of a crisis management group, centralized command and control for clear communication, and a decision-making hierarchy led by protecting member funds, supported by playbooks the team had practiced. Kyle also said "defensible decision making" helps manage legal and regulatory challenges that can follow a crisis.
Dana Grey, chief governance, risk and legal officer at the Pension Protection Fund, cited the importance of ample and clearly defined liquidity buffers during the extreme volatility in the U.K. gilt market in 2022. The PPF, which backs defined benefit plans when U.K. companies become insolvent, maintained substantial liquidity so it could respond quickly to capital calls. Annemarie Mijer, executive board member and chief finance and risk officer at APG, cautioned during a geopolitical risk discussion that actions taken in one area should not create a larger risk in another.
In a separate session on defense investing, panelists including Anne Gram, a board and committee member for several institutional funds including Denmark's ATP (which has $104 billion in AUM, according to Global SWF), said geopolitical developments have shifted the debate from simply investing in weapons to defending democratic values, and that greater willingness to invest in military contractors can carry benefits for members beyond financial returns. Separately, Genevieve Hayman, senior manager for macrosystems and foresight at the CFA Institute, argued that the total portfolio approach provides investment teams the agility to make in-the-moment decisions within a fund's broader holdings.
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