All IPE articles in December 2002 (Magazine) – Page 2
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Features
All part of the service
In an era when the custodian community is desperately attempting to reinvent itself, the less than glamorous concept of cash management rarely finds itself in the spotlight. The notion of ‘the custodian, as a discernibly unglamorous and low-tech anachronism, is no longer compatible with the ‘image-is-all’ focus of today’s big ...
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Features
Wiinning shows importance of different allocations
What the judges said: “We were particularly impressed by the clarity of LPFA’s submission and by the fact that their investment strategy has not been set in light of recent trends but was established a number of years ago pre “Myners”. Amanda Walker, head of finance and investment says the ...
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Features
Bear limps along
Economic data is once again the driving force behind the performance of Europe’s equity markets, with analysts playing down the significance and impact of the Iraqi parliament’s unanimous decision not to allow weapons inspectors to return to Iraq. “It’s not something that we can afford to ignore, but oil prices ...
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Infrastructure as an alternative
Recent global market turmoil has seen a rebalancing of many pension funds’ portfolios away from listed equities and a greater willingness on the part of institutional investors to examine alternative asset classes. There have been many reports of increased allocations to private equity and hedge funds as well as a ...
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Features
OGPF increases alternatives weighting
Osuuspankkien eläkekassa is the pension institution responsible for the TEL pension guarantee (obligatory second pillar) of the employees of OKO Bank Group. At the end of 2001 the pension fund comprised of 355 employers, with a total of 9,229 employees on a TEL contract. The investment operations of the pension ...
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Features
Boots shows another way
The Boots pension scheme is one of the 50 largest UK pension funds, with 72,000 members and £2.3bn of assets (e3.75bn). A move last year to invest 100% of the fund’s assets in long dated bonds, however, made it one of the country’s, if not the continent’s, most talked about ...
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Features
APK puts theory into practice
APK is one of Austria’s largest pension funds with roughly (E1.5bn) is assets under management. The beginning of the year 2000 marked the turning point in the thinking of many institutional investors. Therefore, as a result of the events in 2000, APK reviewed its investment decision-making process and developed an ...
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Features
Slow take-up for new approach
Two years after Norway introduced its long-awaited legislation to encourage the take up of defined contribution (DC) occupational pension plans, pension providers, asset managers and consultants are still waiting for the market to take off. The enabling legislation was supposed to light the fuse of DC plans by making them ...
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Features
Asset to be avoided?
Despite a widespread flight to cash within the international investment community in periods over the last two years, by and large, pension funds have remained loyal to equities markets. With the FTSE All-World index down 38% since November 2000, many investors have seen cash as a safe haven. But while ...
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Coping with fixed liabilities and volatile assets
Pension funds, and particularly defined benefit (DB) ones, are basically a bag of liabilities. These obligations have to be matched by both current assets and the future income stream. In the past 50 years, pension funds have benefited successively from high returns on equities, bonds, and equities again. Since September ...
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Features
Siemens tracks assets globally
Siemens employs around 450,000 people worldwide and in the US is the biggest foreign employer with some 80,000 employees. The group’s pensions liabilities, including Germany, amount to some €18.5bn. At the end of September 2002, to coincide with the end of the group’s financial year, the Siemens group treasury department ...
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Features
Successful overhaul of fund's structure garners Award
What the judges said: “Since 2001 PBU has made a giant leap forward which now allows it to be ambitious and search for best practice in all aspects of running a pension fund. Here is a winner.” When the news broke at Denmark’s fledgling PBU pension fund that it had ...
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Features
Award demonstrates that fund has 'got it right'
Though the judges awarded the IPE investment strategy prize for Denmark to Industriens Pension because of its clever outsourcing of asset management, the deliberate balance between internal and external managers and its use of new asset classes, Jan Oestergaard, the head of investments at the Copenhagen based fund, feels that ...
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Features
Award provides opportunity to present unique concept
Metallrente, the recently established sector-wide supplementary pensions provider for the German metal workers and related industries, believes winning the IPE country award for Germany is a sound acknowledgement that it came up with the perfect concept and structure within the country’s new pensions landscape. “Winning the IPE award gives us ...
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Features
Award provides opportunity to spread message to others
What the judges said: “Pens Plan is a pension fund which deserves very high scores both for Investment Strategy and Fund Structure & Administration.” Winning an IPE award does not come as a surprise to PensPlan, which last year seized Italy’s investment strategy award, but for 2002, the Italian scheme ...
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Features
Award underpins role of providing quality retirement
One of the commendations that PGGM received from the judges was on its move to provide a defined contribution product PGGM Extra Pension(PEP) alongside its main defined benefit scheme. “Greater individualisation and flexibility are not in conflict with solidarity.” The move was seen as an innovative step. At the fund ...
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Features
Award provides a 'peer group benchmark' for the fund
What the judges said: “Clearly structured and informative website which also answers most FAQs.” One of the key benefits of winning an IPE Award for the Zurich-based Beamtenversicherungskasse, the Civil Servants Insurance Fund (CSIF), is the international and domestic exposure it brings. “In Switzerland the employer decides whether an independent ...
