Asset Allocation – Page 258
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Features
Travelling cautiously
Outside the window of Ton Groeneveld’s office in Utrecht, the trains run past constantly, a perpetual reminder if he ever needed it of what his job is all about. He is chief investment officer at SPF Beheer, the management company that was formed in 1994 to administer the e10bn Railways ...
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Features
UK sees rapid pace of change
The pace of change in the UK pensions market over the last 30 years has been more dramatic than in any other major institutional market, claims Greenwich Associates, the Greenwich, Connecticut-based research and consulting firm. Of particular note in the UK, says Greenwich, is the shift by schemes in their ...
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Features
Waiting for signals to change
UK equities have recovered some of the losses they suffered following 11 September and there are signs that the domestic economy is more robust than previously feared. But investors’ hopes for a more geographically widespread upturn in economic fortunes could paradoxically dent share index levels in the UK. This is ...
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Features
Collaborative effort
As many of the Netherlands’ Industry-wide pension funds split their administrative and investment management departments, there’s a hub in Rijswijk where exactly the opposite is underway. Five company schemes and one Industry-wide pension fund, who last year announced they were launching a cooperative, have taken delivery of the keys to ...
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Features
Weighing up critical mass
Size will matter for providers in the new pensions market in Germany, says Commerzbank Securities (ComSec) in a research paper, German Pensions – racing for a bigger prize. ComSec believes that critical mass will become important, since Germany’s new private pensions are low-margin, large-scale products. In addition, ComSec points out ...
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Features
Equal treatment threat to DB
A new proposed directive from the EU is, in my view, potentially much more important for pension schemes than the pensions directive itself. The directive on establishing a General Framework for Equal Treatment in Employment and Occupation could have far reaching implications for pension scheme design across the EU. This ...
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Features
Finnish unions reach last-ditch deal
Finnish labour organisations have reached a last-ditch agreement on reform of the country’s first-pillar TEL pensions system, although some confusion remains as to the nature and timing of some of the reforms. The Finnish government had threatened Finnish social partners that if they could not agree on the changes to ...
