All articles by David White – Page 9
-
Features
A fork in the road
Some have argued that compulsion is the only way to close the so-called ‘savings gap’ the shortfall between the amount people will need in their retirement and the amount that the state will provide. They say the introduction of compulsory pension contributions is the only way forward, since encouragement to ...
-
Features
Cautious tack keeps pensions flowing
It is the proud boast of the Sparinstitutens Pensionkassa (SPK), the pension fund for Sweden’s savings banks, that it has never been underfunded since it was created in 1944. The fund, a defined benefit scheme, has ridden out the recent storms in the equity markets, principally because of its conservative ...
-
Features
Three things for a great business
Historically the New York-based asset manager BlackRock International has never set out to be a big hitter. It has preferred to build up its score steadily. Ralph Schlosstein, the co-founder and president of BlackRock agrees that, for the fixed income business for which his firm is best known, this an ...
-
Features
New kid on the block
Build a better mousetrap, the saying goes, and the world will beat a path to your door. Build a better market index, and perhaps investors will do the same. Until recently, there has been a consensus in the investment community that the traditional broad market indices like the S&P 500 ...
-
Features
Benchmarks bring business risk
Asset managers need to update their fixed income benchmarks each day to be able to judge how their portfolios are behaving in the market. They can lose serious money if the benchmark changes its exposure and their benchmark holdings are not up to date. Benchmark data comes from files supplied ...
-
Features
Smoke alarm at risk
In 1997 Deutsche Bank, the parent of the UK asset manager Morgan Grenfell (now Deutsche Asset Management) paid £220m (e322m) in compensation to clients of funds run by one of Morgan Grenfell’s managers, Peter Young, who had lost money on investments in unlisted companies, The bank was also fined a ...
-
News
Italian schemes outperform TFR – regulator
ITALY - Italy’s complementary occupational pension funds have strongly outperformed the TFR, the severance pay system, so far this year - according to the pensions regulator Covip.
-
News
Swedish schemes to restructure amid directive
SWEDEN - Top Swedish pension funds are set to re-structure their entire portfolios in the wake of the introduction of mark-to-market valuation of liabilities as part of the pensions directive.
-
News
Swiss transport fund facing government probe
SWITZERLAND – The Swiss government is to investigate the reasons for the severe underfunding of the CHF2.15bn (€1.4bn) Swiss transportation sector pension fund Ascoop in 2001.
-
Features
Staying on top of liabilities
The pension fund of Boots, a UK pharmaceuticals retailer, put liabilities management on the map when it moved its entire portfolio into fixed income securities in 2001. The aim was to achieve closer match between assets and liabilities, thereby removing risk from the sponsoring company’s balance sheet. Few UK pension ...
-
Features
Success comes to the nimble-footed
Industriens Pension is the largest of a number of pension schemes based on collective bargaining agreements that were established in Denmark in the early 1990s to provide supplementary pensions for the country’s workers. The scheme covers the entire industrial sector and has around 320,000 members in 8,200 companies. The industrial ...
-
Features
Strong at home and away
With its roots in the first Danish mutual fund launched in 1928, Danske Capital was established in 1996 by Danske Bank to consolidate the group’s asset management activities. It is now one of the largest asset managers in the Nordic area with total assets under management of DKK435bn (e58bn). It ...
-
Features
Blue skies with hint of cloud
Skies over the Danish pension landscape have remained remarkably blue during 2005, with equities lifting fund performance. The only clouds on the horizon are interest rates, which remain worryingly low. Leif Hasager, chief investment officer of the BankPension, which covers around 11,000 employees for companies in the Danish financial sector, ...
-
News
Irish CCF set to miss assets amid tax change
IRELAND - Billions of euros destined to be placed in an Irish common contractual fund (CCF) vehicle will stay in the UK, following a little noticed change in a bilateral US/UK tax treaty.
-
News
Allianz sees European pension markets doubling
EUROPE - The size of European pension markets will more than double over the next 10 years, a leading European asset manager predicts.
-
Features
On the right track
The pension fund of the Dutch rail system, Spoorwegpensioenfonds (SPF) is the oldest and now one of the largest pension funds in the Netherlands, with some 77,000 members and assets of €10bn. The non-compulsory, industry-wide fund, which celebrates its 160th anniversary this year, was one of the first funds in ...
