All Features articles – Page 110
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Features
Funds must apply holistic approach to equity risk
Pension funds assessing their ability to take on equity risk would do well to adopt a “holistic” approach that considers not only the more “technical” aspects of risk associated with financial products, but also the ability of schemes’ sponsors to cover that risk.
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Features
Fear of euro-zone break-up takes hold
Almost half of respondents to this month’s Off The Record survey felt that the biggest credible threat to the global economy or financial markets in 2012 was the euro-zone break-up beginning to look inevitable. “The risk of a break-up has consequences impossible to oversee and hedge. It is not unlikely anymore,” said a Dutch fund.
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Features
‘Democracy will be threatened if you lose grip on public finances’
Former Swedish prime minister Göran Persson recalled the night in 1997 when the EU’s Stability and Growth pact was negotiated. His cabinet had already made the decision that Sweden would not join. “We had decided we were not mature enough to join this club, so we would wait. But even then, we were in much better shape than many of those who took it as a given that they should join the euro-zone.”
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Features
Diary of an Investor: Sinterklaas
Before Christmas, we at Wasserdicht Pension Funds took a call from a research company. They were visiting Dutch pension funds, they said, to carry out a study of attitudes among institutional investors.
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Features
Where East meets West
The Iron Curtain came down more than two decades ago. With the eastern expansion of the European Union that followed, especially in this time of rapid globalisation, one might have thought that all things would be equal by now. But they are far from it.
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Features
Find the right provider
Gail Moss outlines how pension funds should manage the tender process to ensure they appoint the right providers
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Features
Volatility – friend or foe?
Amin Rajan asks what if we are in a prolonged era of fatter tails and frequent bubbles?
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Features
Going global for inflation
In Europe, it seems pricey to buy inflation, whether for liability-hedging or simple wealth preservation. Brendan Maton looks further afield
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Features
An historic opportunity
Regulatory pressure, changes to the market structure and an ongoing de-leveraging process make the financial sector compelling for bondholders, argue Robert Montague and Satish Pulle
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Features
Shifting horizons
Timo Loyttyniemi, managing director of Valtion Eläkerahasto (VER), tells Martin Steward why the Finnish buffer fund’s sure touch through the crisis means that the latest change to its targets might just be the last
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Features
Long-Term Matters: It’s the water, stupid
I predict that water will become the single most important physical commodity-based asset class, dwarfing oil, copper, agricultural commodities and precious metals.
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Features
From our perspective: Part of the solution
One of the more depressing side effects of the financial crisis has been the spectacle of government attacks on funded pensions. But the practice is not new. Back in autumn 2003, the Belgian government nationalised €3.6bn in first pillar pension assets held by the former state telecoms monopoly Belgacom. As finance minister, Gordon Brown launched a bold attack on UK pensions in 1997 when he announced the abolition of dividend tax relief for pension funds.
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Features
Updating the update
Our glorious G20 leaders have charged the IASB with two tasks in relation to financial instruments accounting: reduce the complexity of accounting standards for financial instruments; and strengthen accounting recognition of loan-loss provisions by incorporating a broader range of credit information.
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Features
Hedging your bets
Just over 70% of respondents to this month’s Off The Record quick poll stated that their pension fund invested in hedge funds.
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Features
Swiss challenge
Global custodians are finding Swiss accounting regulations a barrier to its custody and servicing market, writes Iain Morse
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Features
Dutch fiduciaries maintain their guard
Fiduciary managers foresee greater demand for inflation-linked strategies and give a cautious welcome to some aspects of a still vague pension deal, writes Mariska van der Westen
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Features
Ireland returns to the funding standard
With the imminent reintroduction of the funding standard in Ireland, as well as new guidelines on sovereign annuities, the pension industry is to witness some significant changes.
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Features
New chairman rings in the changes at AbA
Attendees of this year’s autumn conference of the German pension fund association Arbeitsgemeinschaft betriebliche Altersversorgung (AbA) in Cologne found an organisation preparing for a new pension era in Germany and across Europe.
