Our approach to short-dated bonds
Aviva Investors’ ReturnPlus strategy aims to provide access to high quality credit spreads with low volatility. The strategy invests in liquid, short-maturity, highly rated fixed-income securities while hedging interest rate and currency risks. Our approach aims to benefit from our extensive experience managing assets to meet clients’ liabilities and risk-based capital requirements to optimise return and capital efficiency.
Why invest?
The strategy is designed to target attractive risk-adjusted returns relative to cash, while seeking to reduce volatility compared with short-dated investment grade credit strategies. For insurance investors, the strategy is structured to support capital-efficient asset allocation. Potential benefits include:
Enhancing returns
Targeting above cash returns of:
Targeting Sonia1 +75bps, ESTR2 +50bps and SOFR3 +75bps p.a.*
Low volatility
Aiming to deliver stable performance and liquidity across a range of challenging market scenarios.
Capital efficiency
Aiming to deliver stable performance and liquidity across a full range of market conditions.
1 GBP Strategy Targeting Sterling Overnight Index Average, a widely used interest rate benchmark and reference rate for sterling overnight Indexed Swaps (OIS).
2 EUR Strategy Targeting Euro Short Term Rate, the alternative euro risk free rate and replacement for EONIA. ESTER will be published from October 2019.
3 USD Strategy Targeting Secured Overnight Financing Rate, the alternative USD risk-free rate and replacement for LIBOR.
* Over a three-year rolling period, regardless of market conditions. Return shown is net return.
Investment philosophy
Seeks to provide returns above those of traditional cash investments while maintaining a focus on capital preservation, liquidity, and risk management. The strategy invests in short-duration, high-quality fixed income securities and uses currency and interest rate hedging techniques, which may help support portfolio stability under varying market conditions.
Enhanced cash returns
Benefit from regional spread premium and structured FX hedging.
Invest in high-rated, short-maturity securities
Diversified across geographies, issuers, and currencies.
Limited exposure to risk
Hedge interest rate and currency exposures.
Investment insights
Investment thinking that brings together the collective insight of Aviva Investors’ teams from across the globe on the key themes influencing markets.
Views
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The week in markets: Tech is feeling the heat
26 Jun 2026
Despite continued pressure on technology stocks, broader markets remained resilient, as easing inflation, steady growth and lower energy prices helped steady the picture.
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Taking the leap: Incorporating climate in core investment-grade allocations
19 Jun 2026
How can investors align their credit allocations to net-zero commitments and maintain returns?
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Confidence in a changing climate
15 Jun 2026
How can institutions forge impactful climate strategies that are right for them and their end beneficiaries? Our “Confidence in a changing climate” guide showcases some of the solutions we have developed to help.
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Bond Voyage: Why repo is quietly becoming one of the most important issues for investors
9 Jun 2026
As central banks unwind quantitative easing (QE), liquidity is increasingly being provided through repo operations instead of continuous asset purchases by the banks. How resilient is this new approach?
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Blockchain: The quiet technology reshaping financial infrastructure
8 Jun 2026
Tokenisation is more than a technical novelty. Our simple guide explains how blockchain turns assets into digital tokens and examines the potential benefits and risks.
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Sustainability review 2025
2 Jun 2026
We believe understanding sustainability factors and trends is fundamental to effective asset management. This report sets out our approach and includes an overview of our holistic stewardship activities over the past year
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Clarity and resilience: New guidance for European Money Market Funds
21 May 2026
New guidance on the rules governing European money market funds should strengthen the market’s foundations and provide a firm footing for innovation and growth, argues Alastair Sewell.
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Bond Voyage: Emerging markets have changed: why markets shouldn’t price them like it's 2013
11 May 2026
Emerging markets have increasingly forged for themselves a path less dependent on external conditions, making local currency debt one of the most mispriced narratives in global markets.
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Contemporary alchemy
5 May 2026
Precious metals such as gold and silver, rare earth minerals, and industrial metals such as copper have been making headlines in recent months. We talked to a team of experts to discover what’s been driving investors’ appetite.
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The case for ReturnPlus: A capital-efficient enhanced liquidity strategy
30 Apr 2026
The ReturnPlus strategy invests in a broad range of liquidity sub-asset classes, while consuming limited regulatory capital. Our ReturnPlus team explains why investors should consider an allocation to the strategy.
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Bond Voyage: Oil shocks without the drama
9 Apr 2026
The reaction to the latest oil price shock provides further evidence that those countries which have taken steps to strengthen their financial position are being rewarded by bond investors.
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Bond Voyage: Markets repricing as Gulf conflict threatens energy shock
12 Mar 2026
The ongoing conflict in the Middle East continues to impact the markets while inflation expectations are recalibrated.
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Bond Voyage: Dancing to a new tune: How Japan’s Lifers are adapting to a market in flux
9 Feb 2026
Japan’s bond markets enter 2026 transformed and recent structural shifts have changed the behaviour of the country’s powerful life insurers.
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Bond Voyage: Industrialised alpha meets fixed income fragility
13 Jan 2026
Could the proliferation of short-term leverage strategies be the next hidden challenge for fixed income markets?
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Bond Voyage: Hyperscalers issue debt to finance huge investments in generative AI data centres
12 Dec 2025
In the last Bond Voyage edition of 2025, we examine the vast amounts of capital being deployed to build new high-capacity data centres and how the expenditure is being funded in the bond markets.
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Boosting low-carbon investment in the UK: 2025 Roadmap Update
11 Dec 2025
In 2024, we outlined our view on the most important public-policy interventions to unlock private investment in the low-carbon economy. In this update, we take stock of policy developments since, and look ahead to 2026 and beyond.
House view
House View
No one can predict the future. But our quarterly House View sets out the collective wisdom of our investment teams on the current state of global markets – and where they might be heading.
Bond Voyage
Bond Voyage: A journey into fixed income
Each month, our freewheeling fixed-income newsletter gathers insights from our high-yield, investment-grade, emerging-market and global sovereign bond teams.
Key risks of ReturnPlus strategy
Investment risk & Currency risk
The value of an investment and any income from it can go down as well as up and can fluctuate in response to changes in currency and exchange rates. Investors may not get back the original amount invested.
Credit and interest rate risk
Bond values are affected by changes in interest rates and the bond issuer's creditworthiness. Bonds that offer the potential for a higher income typically have a greater risk of default.
Illiquid securities risk
Some investments could be hard to value or to sell at a desired time, or at a price considered to be fair (especially in large quantities), and as a result their prices can be volatile.
ReturnPlus team
Meet our ReturnPlus team.
Todd Cutting
Head of Enhanced Liquidity and ReturnPlus
Alastair Sewell
Senior Investment Director
Explore
Fixed income
Fixed income is an indispensable building block for meeting a variety of investment goals, including income, inflation protection, liability management and capital appreciation.
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