Asset Allocation – Page 234
-
Features
Uncertainty overhang holds back investors
Since Graham & Dodd published their paper on Securities Analysis in 1934 and T Rowe Price rejoined with a piece in Barron’s on investing for growth later that decade, the two contrasting styles of growth and value have competed for the high ground in US investment. For a European pension ...
-
Features
Change on the horizon
In matters of French pensions the adage plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose could often be employed in the past with an accompanying gallic shrug. Today the case is different. While France is not about to give up its beloved répartition (pay-as-you-go) pensions system for all the demographic ...
-
Features
Closing the pensions gap
Defined contribution plans have historically played a small part in the Germany’s occupational pension system. So the reform of the system engineered by former labour minister Walter Riester raised hopes among some companies that Germany might see the introduction of a DC plan design along Anglo-Saxon lines – the German ...
-
Features
Is Switzerland in crisis?
Switzerland has been teetering on the brink of a so called ‘pensions crisis’ for several months. When the government lowered the minimum guaranteed interest rate paid on occupational pension schemes from 4% to 3.25%, one sensed that all was not well with Switzerland’s second pillar system. With an increasing number ...
-
Features
Europe trails in US footsteps
We must all hang together or, most assuredly, we will all hang separately. This is the current message from the Euro-zone equity markets, rattled by fears of a war in Iraq and its consequences for the US economy. The high degree of correlation between the European and US markets means ...
-
Features
Where France takes the lead
The reform of the French pension fund market will be good for custodians, says Bernard Blaud, head of sales and relationship management for international investor services, France, at BNP Paribas Securities Services. “Pension funds will require a range of services, including daily net asset value calculations and compliance monitoring.” Bruno ...
-
Features
GIPS - going for gold
In April 1999 the US Association for Investment Management and Research (AIMR) sponsored and published the Global Investment Performance Standards (GIPS®) Global Investment Performance Standards (GIPS) to meet the needs of the globalised investment management industry. As financial markets and investment management firms become increasingly global in nature, the variety ...
-
Features
'Nothing sacred' in reform
Japan appears to be in a vicious circle right now, with low interest rates, a banking industry burdened by bad loans and moribund financial markets all weighing on the world’s second largest economy. And that’s not to mention a rapidly ageing population. To try to dig its way out of ...
-
Features
We have the technology
With the current move from equity to fixed interest sectors, the ability to perform comprehensive risk management on portfolios of fixed interest instruments is now more important than ever before. A major component of this is the ability to perform fixed interest attribution, or to isolate the effects of various ...
-
Features
In the twlilight zone
Financial markets are searching for the global economic rebound. Any encouraging signs are greeted with recovery trades in equity and bond markets. However, these trades are just as quickly unwound when the economic news becomes more sombre. Chances are that an erratic global economy will continue to feed market volatility. ...
