All IPE articles in April 2016 (Magazine)
View all stories from this issue.
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Features
Ahead of the Curve: The deflationary impacts of web 2.0
Edward Shing examines the deflationary effects of the emerging ‘sharing economy’ on traditional companies
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Country Report
Domestic Accounting: Discounting the future
The new discount rate to be applied to pension liabilities under German accounting standards simply postpones a serious problem
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Country Report
Domestic Accounting: A half-hearted compromise
Thomas Hagemann reviews changes to the discount rate methodology applied by corporates to calculate pension liabilities
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Asset Class Reports
European Equities: More scope for active managers
The European economy is showing some strong signs of recovery. What does this mean for Europe’s equity markets?
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Interviews
Strategically speaking: Capabilities for adapting
When Colin Clark, director of the global client group at Standard Life Investments, entered finance in 1980 he could not have predicted he would be part of some dramatic shifts in global asset management
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Special Report
Factor Alignment: Tailor with care
The wide range of uses to which factor investing can be put means investors need to ensure the approach and methodology are suitable for the intended strategy
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Interviews
On the Record: Are you restructuring your asset allocation?
KBC Pensionfonds, National Employment Savings Trust and PME discuss restructuring asset allocations
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Special Report
Asset allocation in volatile times
Should investors rethink their strategic asset allocation in light of current volatility? Three leading investment consultants tell IPE how they are advising their clients to react to the changing environment
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Features
Asset Allocation: The big picture
Although there were significant bounces during February and March in Chinese stocks, commodities, and emerging market assets, there is still a nervous pall hanging over markets
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Asset Class Reports
Do not bank on another crisis
Despite problems in Europe and globally, opinions are split on the likelihood of another banking crisis
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Features
Appeasing the gatekeeper
Last year I attended a drinks reception organised by a UK consultancy. The event was arranged specifically to allow the firm’s staff to meet with the asset management community. The theme running through the opening remarks was simple: “We have no current or future plans to offer fiduciary management, therefore we will never compete with you.”
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Special Report
Assessing Smart Beta: Some rough with the smooth
Anyone hoping to benefit from factor investing should be willing to accept significant periods of underperformance
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Features
PLSA Investment Conference: Industry embraces FCA asset management review
The question of whether the asset management market is working for pension funds and other investors, as the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is asking, was a theme at the UK pension fund association’s conference in Edinburgh.
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Country Report
Pensions in Austria: Broadening the horizons
Like their international counterparts, Austrian Pensionskassen must find new sources of return. Barbara Ottawa reports on the potential opportunities
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FeaturesBanks and LDI
The rise of liability-driven investments (LDI), pairing cashflow-matching assets with forecast liability streams, has developed in tandem with a broad, overall maturing of the liabilities of the European occupational pension sector
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from Brussels: Beefing up the CMU
Inadequacy of European national court systems in the financial sphere is due for overhaul. Upgrade is necessary if the EU’s capital markets union programme (CMU) is going to get anywhere, according to a high-status paper
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Special Report
Index Providers: Benchmark bonanza
The rapid growth and popularity of new of multi-factor smart beta strategies are fuelling the creation of a plethora of indices
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Special Report
Origins of the smart beta species
Andrew Clare, Stephen Thomas and Nick Motson trace the roots of smart beta that began as a test of the Efficient Market Hypothesis in universities in the 1970s
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Special Report
At the core of smart beta
Charlotte Moore attempts to pin down the characteristics at the heart of factor investing
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Special Report
Pioneers: Better be smart
Lynn Strongin Dodds finds that as the strategy becomes more popular, pioneers in the alternative-indexation field are warning investors to avoid being just performance chasers
