All articles by David White – Page 7
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Features
Looking for the positive
An ancestor of George Putnam, the founder of US mutual fund manager Putnam Investments, established the original ‘prudent man principle’ which money managers to handle investor’s money as they would their own Three years ago Putnam Investments was involved in an improper trading scandal where some employees were found to ...
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News
Crédit Agricole AM mulls US acquisition - CIO
FRANCE - Crédit Agricole Asset Management is considering an acquisition in the US, according to chief investment officer Pascal Blanqué.
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News
Dutch funds wary on collective DC
NETHERLANDS – Only one in three managers of Dutch pension funds, polled at a pensions conference in the Netherlands, believe that the new collective defined contribution (CDC) pension plan is the only way for corporate pension funds to stay in business.
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News
Italy’s Previcooper seeking asset managers
ITALY – Previcooper, the €73m supplementary second pillar pension for employees of Italy’s co-operative distribution industry, is looking for asset managers for the ‘Safe’ portfolio of its ‘multicomparto’ structure.
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Features
Who's afraid of the D-word?
Derivatives - the portmanteau word for futures, options and swaps - send shivers down the spines of the boards of many pension funds, who see them as too complicated, too expensive and too risky. Yet derivatives offer a way out of the difficulties that pension funds face in the current ...
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Features
Long and short of duration
The need for pension funds to match their assets more closely to their liabilities has put the topic of duration at the top of the agenda. Pension funds are faced with the problem of finding fixed income instruments with the right durations. The problem is greatest at the long ...
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News
Italy’s Foncer seeks three managers
ITALY - Foncer, the second pillar supplementary pension fund for workers in Italy’s ceramic tile industry, is looking for three managers for its €70m portfolio.
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News
Ex-DeAM duo to run Oxford University assets
UK - Two former senior executives of Deutsche Asset Management (DeAM) have set up a company to manage £100m (€145m) assets of three Oxford University colleges.
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News
Ex-Robeco CIO Vriezen to run C&A assets
NETHERLANDS - The former chief investment officer of Robeco, Marnix Vriezen, has taken over the management of the €1bn assets of the pension fund of C&A Nederland, the Dutch arm of the international clothes retailer.
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Features
Active route away from the crowd
The London Pensions Fund Authority, (LPFA), is one of the UK’s leading public sector pension schemes, with 73,000 members and £3.2bn (€4.7bn) in pension fund assets. It was set up in 1989 as a stand-alone public body to take over the running of the pension fund of the Greater London ...
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Features
Alchemy to the rescue?
Portable alpha offers pension funds the investment equivalent of alchemy – transmuting non-performing into performing assets. Using swaps or futures contracts - a process known as equitisation - funds can transfer or ‘port’ the alpha generated by one asset class to other asset classes in their portfolio. In this way, ...
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Features
Applying an objective view
One of the reasons that portable alpha has yet to be adopted by pension funds may be that it does not appear to meet their needs. Although it is conceptually attractive, its seems to have no practical application. Ronald Ryan, founder and CEO of US-based Ryan Asset Liability Management believes ...
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Features
Finding the right fit
When the French financier Arpad Busson set up EIM as a fund of hedge funds manager in 1992, his only database of managers was his address book. Today, things are done rather differently. EIM operates an intranet ‘window’ with software which enables its 41 analysts and portfolio managers to gain ...
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News
Swedish savers put €2.5bn into Kapitalpension
SWEDEN – Swedish savers placed almost SEK23bn (€2.5bn) in the new savings product – the Kapitalpension - during 2005, according to figures from the Swedish Insurance Federation, Försäkringsförbundet.
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News
FTK to tie up 10% of Dutch GDP - study
NETHERLANDS - Dutch pension funds will need to tie up €50bn - 10% of their country’s GDP - to meet the requirements of the FTK, the new Dutch legislation for pension funds, according to research by asset managers SEI Investments Europe.
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Features
Anatomy of satisfaction
Fonchim, the €4.5bn industrywide pension fund for Italy’s chemical and pharmaceutical industry workers, has been one of the most successful of the new complementary pension funds at recruiting members. The fund has attracted 116,000 members, 60% of its potential membership, since it was launched in 1999. This is far higher ...
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Features
A rose by any other name...
What’s in a name? The search for a new term for ‘pensions’ that might be less off-putting for scheme members is an endeavour without real appeal to those managing pension plans. The predicament is one of coming up with something that is much worse than what we have or that ...
