Asset Allocation – Page 188
-
Special Report
Mainstream-type returns is key
The UNISON staff pension scheme in the UK has committed all of its equities investment - two-thirds of total assets - to SRI. In September 2003, the fund put £100m (e150m) into an SRI mandate run by Morley Fund Management. At the time, it was the largest sum ever to ...
-
Features
Widening the net
Unpasteurised cheeses are becoming ever more popular in the UK on account of their more complex flavour – a flavour which becomes still more complex as the cheese matures. The sophistication of tastes is presenting new challenges - and thereby opportunities - to many a UK cheese manufacturer. Especially the ...
-
Features
Story of pensions success
Croatia’s second pillar pension funds have proved to be a spectacular success since their foundation in 2002, despite being launched against an unstable political background as the country grappled with recovery from the 1991-95 Yugoslav war and political parties pursued confrontation rather than consensus. The reform also paved the way ...
-
Features
On the right track
The pension fund of the Dutch rail system, Spoorwegpensioenfonds (SPF) is the oldest and now one of the largest pension funds in the Netherlands, with some 77,000 members and assets of €10bn. The non-compulsory, industry-wide fund, which celebrates its 160th anniversary this year, was one of the first funds in ...
-
Features
Case for active style allocation
Although the existing literature seems to concur on the interest of hedge funds as valuable investment alternatives, there seem to be several shortcomings in current industry practice when it comes to fully capitalising on the advantages of including hedge funds in an investor’s asset allocation. So far, the only solution ...
-
Features
Pensions reforms back on track
Few countries need pension reforms as badly as Russia. The majority of the country’s 40m pensioners live in dire poverty, and this population is increasing as a result of increasing longevity. Pensions reforms, however, have had a mixed response, from both the public and providers. Their complexity has raised questions ...
-
Features
How BASF has it taped
Let us rewind to the year 1888. In that year BASF was one of the first companies in Germany to set up a Pensionskasse. Fast-forward to the present: Today it caters for BASF’s German employees with a funding of around E4.5bn, and forms part of a network of schemes with ...
-
Features
Managing home bias
IPE asked three pension funds in three countries – in Finland, Ireland and Switzerland – the same question: ‘Do pension funds have a duty to invest in local industries?’ Here are their answers: Bríd Horan, general manager of Ireland’s ESB Pension Fund, which has AUM of e2.8bn. “Irish pension ...
-
Features
The eye of CEIOPS
Ahead of the 23 September deadline for the implementation of European occupational retirement provision (IORP), directive the Committee of European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Supervisors (CEIOPS) has published a discussion paper on the role of supervisory co-operation in facilitating membership of cross-border pension funds. Europe has a wide diversity of ...
-
Features
Chickens come home to roost
In late 1993 the Croatian government instituted an economic stabilisation programme that was extraordinarily successful in curbing hyperinflation. But it led indirectly to the creation of a pension debt that delayed the introduction of a second and third pillar and more than a decade later threatens the country’s fiscal stability ...
-
Features
Mounting concerns over workforce size
The EU issued some worrying population projections for the next 50 years, with a view to updating pension expenditure forecasts in the EU25. Also, the European Federation for Retirement Provision (EFRP) told the Commission that its push to eliminate tax discrimination of pension funds was moving ahead too slowly. The ...
-
Features
Oil for extra virgin wheels
Italy’s new defined contribution (DC) schemes have got off to a slow start. Having become operational only a few years ago, assets under management of the industry-specific contrattuali - literally contractual, or closed - schemes were just short of E6bn at the end of September, with just over a million ...
