This article was published on April, 1st

At an informal meeting of 21 government pensions funds in Geneva, Switzerland, the topic of alternative lending was for the first time on the agenda. The funds discussed the risks and merits of allocating a small percentage of their investments in this asset class in the future. P2P-Banking learned that the managers of the Statens pensjonsfond Utland, the Norwegian Government Pension Fund,  are considering to propose to call for an adaption of their investment rules to allow the investment of up to 0.3% of the funds money in innovative finance. A representative of the Australian Future Fund said, that investing to p2p lending marketplaces might be an interesting strategy in order to reduce the systemic risks that banks pose. However it would be much to all early to take this step now.

Unconfirmed rumours say that even the very conservative management of the German Rentenversicherung is analysing the opportunity due to very low yield of other asset classes. A spokesman of a German opposition party stated ‘This is all fake news. There is no way that pension money will be put in this unstable investment. We will not allow it’.

It would not be possible at the current size of the industry to allocate even a tiny fraction of the funds of these sovereign wealth funds, due to their sheer size.

Demonstrants from the Swiss communist party were protesting loudly outside the conference hotel, claiming this is just a plot of banks to divert attention from their wrongdoings and scams.