All Country Reports articles – Page 33
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Country Report
The Netherlands: The right risks
Mariska van der Westen discussed longevity and other risks with Peter Borgdorff, director of the Dutch healthcare fund PFZW
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Country Report
The Netherlands: The yin and yang of investing
De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) advocates strict separation of risk management and fiduciary management. But Lodewijk van Pol, head of fiduciary management at Lombard Odier, argues that risk management and fiduciary management are joined together at the hip and that is just the way it should be
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Country ReportThe Netherlands: Panic football or a long game?
Dutch opinion is divided over the regulatory reaction to the recent financial shocks, find Liam Kennedy and Mariska van der Westen. Whatever the outcome of the planned overhaul to the FTK, good communication will be essential
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Country Report
The Netherlands: Each to its own
Last year, social affairs and labour ministry director general Maarten Camps hinted that the new FTK would take on a dual character. He talks to Miranda Schoutsen about the form the framework will take
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Country Report
The Netherlands: DNB to tighten supervision
Mariska van der Westen outlines the agenda of the Dutch pension fund supervisors
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Country Report
The Netherlands: United in face of challenges
The financial crisis triggered closer co-operation between the three Dutch pension fund organisations. In November last year the Pension Federation became the single external voice of all 550 Dutch pension schemes, as director Gerard Riemen, explains to Leen Preesman
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Country Report
Belgium: Pensioenfonds UZ Gent: Diverse benchmarks
The UZ Gent pension fund, founded in 1995, is unique in Belgium in that it does not provide a second pillar supplementary pension, but replaces the legal first pillar pension for civil servants employed at the University Hospital Ghent. Employees with a normal labour agreement cannot join the scheme.
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Country Report
Belgium: GDF Suez/Belgian gas and electricity pension funds re-assess euro government bond exposure
These five pension funds – comprising a total of 20,000 members – cover GDF Suez Belgium, the Belgian entity of GDF Suez, a global independent power generating company, and other companies from the Belgian gas and electricity sector.
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Country Report
Belgium: Pension B looks to real estate and tactical asset allocation
Before the Vandenbroucke law came into force in 2004, the Belgian construction sector distributed some of its reserves to its retiring ex-workers. However, this practice did not conform to the new OFP (organisation for financing pensions) system, leading to the creation of the new sector pension fund, Pensio B, in ...
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Country Report
Belgium: KBC Pensioenfonds prepares for accounting rule changes
The pension fund of Belgian bank and insurance group KBC has returned to pre-crisis levels following 2010 returns of 9.42% for the DB and 6.52% for the DC scheme, leaving the scheme with a short-term, liquidation scenario funding level of 147% and a long-term funding level of 113%, up 8% ...
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Country Report
Belgium: On the road to insurance
As the cracks become more visible across the Belgian political landscape, Nina Roehrbein reports on how pension funds are dealing with their own volatility issues
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Country Report
Ireland: Salvation stalling
In common with defined benefit schemes across Europe, Ireland’s are facing an existential crisis, with underfunding and closures widespread. New legislation to aid the industry was promised, but a year later has failed to materialise, finds Jonathan Williams
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Country Report
Ireland: Out of the gloom
Ireland’s future once lay in financial services. What now? Christine Senior reports
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Country Report
Ireland: Ireland’s political football
There is no doubt Ireland is facing an unprecedented sovereign debt crisis, says Jonathan Williams. But is liquidating the National Pensions Reserve Fund the best way to solve the problem?
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Country Report
Ireland: Ireland’s pension challenges
The Irish Association of Pension Funds’ Jerry Moriarty reviews a year in Irish occupational pensions and charts the way forward in 2011
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Country Report
Ireland: Fixing a broken model
The era of the traditonal managed fund is over, writes David O’Connor
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Country Report
Ireland: Auto-enrolment with a punch
With reforms for ailing DB schemes viewed as more urgent and in parts easier to implement than the sweeping reforms suggested for the DC sector, Ireland seems set to forget its pledge that auto-enrolment was the way forward, writes Jonathan Williams
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Country Report
Ireland: A €1bn question
The leading Irish companies contributed €1bn to pensions in the financial year 2009 but there were few substantive changes to pension arrangements, writes Conor Daly
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Country Report
Switzerland: Sitting pretty
Emma Cusworth charts Swiss pension funds’ allocations to domestic equities
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Country Report
Switzerland: Of prudence and pretence
The asset allocation of Swiss pension funds is subject to detailed government regulations. As the granularity of these regulations has been relaxed over the years, some say that Switzerland is well on her way to adopt the globally established prudent investor standard. Christian Dreyer begs to differ
