CalPERS fine-tunes infrastructure policy

The California Public Employees’ Retirement System has revised its infrastructure policy in order to give it an edge in pursuing investments and to support diversification. The $277.3 billion retirement system is allowing its infrastructure staff to include more financing and debt in its investments and has clarified rules about diversification for investment vehicles, general partners and managers.

The changes might be an indication that competition is heating up in infrastructure deal markets and the retirement system wants to be able to make decisions more quickly and with more firepower while keeping within its diversification parameters.

CalPERS’ infrastructure policy had required prior board approval for commitments to commingled funds with leverage of more than 65 per