Asset Allocation – Page 166
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Features
Regional funds reach the parts
The recent pension reform, approved by the former Berlusconi government with law decree 252/05, permits Italian regions to set up ‘regional’ pension funds. This development seems quite unique in Europe: why should regions be empowered to set up their own pension funds? Under Italian law (law decree 124/93 reformed with ...
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Features
Russia gets taste of market
Non-state (private) pension funds (NSPFs) consider September 1992 the birth date of the pension industry in Russia. At that time President Yeltsin signed a decree making it possible to set up the first funds. In legal terms they had to be socially oriented not-for-profit organisations. Then such a status was ...
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Features
Global liquidity under threat?
Yield curve/duration An uncomfortable unease is permeating all asset classes across all markets. What will the Fed chairman Bernanke do next? Go for more tightening to show the markets that he too is as tough on inflation as his hugely respected predecessor? Or will he wait, giving the US economy ...
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Features
Persuading the silent majority
The slow development of Italian pension funds is mainly due to the lack of resources to finance them. Neither the companies nor the employees have ‘serious money’ to put into the funds. Contributions made to the pension funds by companies and employees so far have been almost nominal (ie, a ...
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Features
In a world of their own
Size matters when it comes to pension funds. The bigger the fund, the better value it can give scheme members, through economies of scale on the investment side. On the other hand, when a single pension fund has to cover an exceptionally broad geographical area, the costs can mount up. ...
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Features
Kvaerner Pension Fund in E145m settlement
A dispute over the £1.2bn Kvaerner Pension Fund in the UK has been settled with a total payout of £101m (€145m) over six years from TH Global, the former Kvaerner Plc. “In return for payments totalling £101m, TH Global and its subsidiaries will no longer be associated with the Kvaerner ...
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Features
Looking beyond the 3Ps
Investment managers will have their work cut out over the next year. If they want to keep abreast of market and regulatory developments they need to make significant changes to the systems and processes that support their businesses. Institutional clients have more expertise than ever before – and they are ...
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Features
The challenges ahead
Setting up occupational pension schemes seems to be the future trend in Greek social security system. Until 2002, Greece was not familiar with the term “occupational pension scheme”, unlike other EU countries where supplementary provision already played a vital role in the social security system. In that context, the institution ...
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Features
Busy doing not very much at all
When highlighting the merits of the profession of active manager, stock picking is often presented as the leading factor in the creation of value. After the downturn in the markets in 2000, benchmarked management was vilified in favour of investment management based on ‘convictions’ where small cap stocks, which had ...
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Features
German association fears for corporate pensions
Boy-Jürgen Andresen, chairman of German occupational pensions association Aba, has warned that the further development of corporate pensions in Germany is in peril unless the government prolongs a social tax exemption for defined contribution schemes. The social tax exemption for the DC schemes, created by the Riester reforms of 2001, ...
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Special Report
Big European funds back UN investment principles
Some of Europe’s largest pension funds have signed up to the United Nations’ new set of six responsible investment principles. Signatories to the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), launched at the New York Stock Exchange, include national pension funds in Norway, Ireland, France, Sweden as well as names such as ...
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Features
Dutch base 'superb' for management
The EU pension directive has opened the way for the Netherlands to become a superb operating base for asset management, says Dirk Witteveen, director of pensions regulator De Nederlandsche Bank. “The Netherlands have already a wide experience with the directive’s ‘prudent person’ approach of the investment rules. Pension fund are ...
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Features
Benign conditions boost Irish schemes
Benign conditions, including higher bond yields and strong equity and property markets, have boosted the health of Irish defined benefit pension schemes in the first quarter, according to Mercer Investment Consulting. According to Mercer estimates, average funding ratios have improved by between 10% and 15% from the end of 2005 ...
