All articles by Barbara Ottawa – Page 88
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Chemie Pensionsfonds gets new owner
[13:00 CET 18-12] GERMANY – Munich-based banking group HypoVereinsbank (HVB) has sold its pension fund companies Chemie Pensionsfonds and HVB Pensionsfonds to insurer R+V, for an undisclosed sum.
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Swiss funds to get governance index
[13:30 CET 17-12] SWITZERLAND – Swiss Pensionskassen are not as bad as their reputation, according to Andreas Zingg, a researcher at the university of St. Gallen who is looking into pension fund governance.
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Swiss mandatory funds need CHF16bn
[16:30 CET 14-12] SWITZERLAND – The number of underfunded mandatory pension funds has dropped from 97 to 67 in the course of 2006 reducing the gap in the system from CHF19bn (€11.4bn) to CHF16.7bn.
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Polish gov’t asks EBRD for help over PZU
[15:00 CET 12-12] POLAND – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is looking at how it might help resolve the conflict over the privatisation of Polish insurance giant PZU.
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Mercer Austria names new head
[11:00 CET 11-12] AUSTRIA – Josef Papousek was named chief executive officer of consultancy Mercer’s Austrian operations.
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VBV poaches manager from IPE winner
[12:45 CET 10-12] AUSTRIA – Günther Schiendl, head of investments at the APK Pensionskasse, will join the board at rival pension fund VBV from January.
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Commodities taking Swiss funds’ fancy – Lusenti
[14:00 CET 07-12] SWITZERLAND – Swiss pension funds voted commodities the winner among alternative assets when it comes to transparency, liquidity and costs, consultancy Lusenti finds in this year’s institutional survey.
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25% of CEE wealth to grow from pension funds – UniCredit
[16:10 CET 06-12] EUROPE – Over the next two years pension fund assets will increase household wealth in Central and Eastern Europe by €83bn which is one fourth of the total growth, banking group UniCredit finds.
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IPE winner loses heads
[11:00 CET 05-12] AUSTRIA – Markus Zeilinger, chairman of the board, and Johannes Puhr, head of asset management, are leaving the €240m Bonus Pensionskasse.
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Education no substitute for good default – Harvard academic
[15:00 CET 04-12] GLOBAL – Financial education and matching contributions from employers for DC schemes will not help raise the pensions savings rate, David Laibson, Professor of Economics at Harvard University, has suggested.
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World Bank in CEE financial reporting push
EUROPE – The World Bank has opened a centre for financial reporting reform (CFRR) in Vienna, to aid countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia in their transition to international accounting and reporting standards.
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Redefine DC categories, argues Nobel laureate
[13:00 CET 30-11] GLOBAL – Default categories for defined contribution pensions should be devised according to "prototypes" of employees, Nobel economics laureate Joseph Stiglitz has recommended.
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Life cycle investment is 'utter nonsense', claims IPE winner
[16:15 CET 29-11] AUSTRIA – Changing the asset allocation in a portfolio solely on the basis of the members’ age is “complete nonsense”, as are other strictly “mechanical portfolio management concepts”, according to Christian Böhm, managing director of the Austrian multi-employer pension fund APK.
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AEGON picks up 'gap' Czech pensions business
[12:30 CET 28-11] CZECH REPUBLIC – AEGON’s Czech pension fund attracted 3,000 members in In the first three months of its existence, according to industry figures.
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Parliamentary pension fund too costly – German MPs
[12:00 CET 27-11] GERMANY – German MPs have agreed to increase in their retirement and make cuts in their pensions but have voted against the creation of a pension fund for members of the parliament, the so-called ‘Bundestag’.
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Promoting property as a pension is wrong - MetallRente
[16:30 CET 26-11] GERMANY – Plans by the German government to subsidise private property by way of supplementary pensions endangers the level of retirement provision, industry pension group MetallRente noted.
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Hewitt strengthens presence in Austria
[11:00 CET 23-11] AUSTRIA – Hewitt has signed a co-operation agreement with the Austrian firm ‘Benefit Consulting’ to increase its exposure in Austria.
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Pension increase ‘not helpful’ for second pillar - consultant
[15:00 CET 22-11] AUSTRIA – Raising the state minimum pension and telling voters a raise of retirement age was ‘not necessary’, and is not helping to further develop second pillar retirement provision, Peter Prandstätter, managing director of Benefit Consulting, has told IPE.
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Poland urged 'open foreign investment and prevent crash'
[11:30 CET 21-11] POLAND – Current restrictions on pension funds for investment in foreign equities and the use of derivatives could lead to a crisis on the Warsaw stock exchange, Krzysztof Rybiński, deputy president of the National Bank of Poland, has warned.
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Pensionsfonds gain more freedom
[13:30 CET 20-11] GERMANY – The German Parliament has approved changes to the insurance law which will give Pensionsfonds greater leeway in dealing with underfunding.
