All Features articles – Page 111
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Features
Alight for full funding
Markus Hübscher, CEO of the Swiss Federal Railways pension fund, told Nina Röhrbein about his fund’s restructuring and new internal governance structure
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Features
Cash in the attic
Squeezing a return out of cash can expose funds to unexpected risk. But Charlotte Moore suggests that using it for strategic optionality removes the need to take risk in the search for yield
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NAPF: Preparing for auto-enrolment
The EU and DC were two of the most hotly debated topics at October’s National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) conference in Manchester.
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The good, the bad and the average
New analysis from Merrill Lynch indicates that hedge funds have never been so closely correlated with equities as they have in the past three years. It initiated another of those periodic waves of comment that pension funds are wasting their time and money going to hedge funds for “uncorrelated returns”.
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A precarious balance
We have heard much in recent years about institutions that were, or are, ‘too big to fail’, particularly in 2008 when Bear Stearns collapsed, followed later that year by the entry of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into government conservatorship, the bailout of AIG and the collapse without rescue of Lehman Brothers.
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Heightened scrutiny on derivatives collateral
The use of credit support annexe (CSA) agreements, defining the collateral that can be posted in bilateral over-the-counter derivative (OTC) trades, has increased significantly over recent years as pension funds have made increasing use of derivatives.
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Scepticism over cross-border schemes
The desire to implement defined contribution (DC) pension plans is growing among companies around the world, while the necessity, one day, of a pan-European DC scheme is at the front of industry minds. But even though some pension providers have already paved the way, the journey is a long one.
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Features
Focus on DC
It is difficult to retain sight of the founding principles of the EU’s Pensions Directive (IORP) when confronted with the 500-page response of the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) to the EC’s call for advice last April on its review of the legislation.
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Features
Diary of an Investor: Investment detour
This autumn, we at Wasserdicht Pension Funds in the Netherlands are touring some of our factories around the country to talk to members and pensioners about the pension fund.
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Features
Persistency via operational excellence
In the final article in the current series, Jervis Smith and Amin Rajan highlight the role of third-party administrators as innovation partners
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Features
Too much of a good thing?
A well structured fund can enjoy a return premium of up to 1%. What governance structures should smaller pension funds aspire to? Gail Moss reports
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Leave it to technocrats?
Those who believe that governance by technocrat will solve Italy’s ills should think again. The IASB is currently working on a three-bucket approach for financial asset impairment. The idea is that newly originated or purchased loans – the model must work for both – are allocated by an entity to one of three buckets. And in very general terms, assets will move from one bucket to another in order to reflect deteriorating credit quality and credit losses. This is the board’s third stab at developing an impairment model since 2009.
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Features
I polder, you polder
In October, the Dutch pension system was named the best in the world for the third year running by the Melbourne Mercer Global Pension index. But despite its top ranking, the Dutch system scored less on adequacy and sustainability than the previous year and its overall index value slipped from 78.3 to 77.9. In the Netherlands, as elsewhere, pension provision is under threat from a rising tide of troubles, including an ageing (and long-lived) population, low interest rates and fretful financial markets.
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Features
Pension anger
Even if they can’t easily articulate what single thing could be done to make them go home, the Wall Street protestors and their European counterparts have more than a little in common with the Dutch youth political activists who last month joined forces in a ‘pensions rebellion’ against the Netherlands’ ...
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Features
Currency affairs
Three-quarters of respondents to this month’s Off The Record survey used currency management, 91.5% of these doing so for currency exposure hedging and 8.5% for returns.
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UK pension funds judge buyouts as too costly
This summer’s market turbulence took many UK pension funds by surprise, pushing them to look even more closely at their de-risking strategy. But while pension buyout deal prices have remained fairly stable, the cost of such deals has increased significantly due to falls in bond yields.
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The ethical oligarchs
Kicking off the National Ethical Investment Week in London, pollster YouGov published the results of a survey measuring the British public’s interest in green and ethical financial products.
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Features
Smart Finnish moves
Brendan Maton spoke with Staffan Sevón, chief investment officer at Veritas, about his fund’s hands-on approach to investing
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Features
The long-termists
As those who watched the 2006 film ‘300’ will remember, ‘the 300’ refers to the band of Spartans who heroically fought against the Persians at the battle of Thermopylae in 480BC. A modern re-incarnation – The 300 Club – has been brought to life by Saker Nusseibeh, CIO of Hermes ...
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Features
QE2: Good for the economy, bad for pensions?
While many in the flnancial market welcomed the Bank of England’s relaunch of quantitative easing – or QE2 – committing a further £75bn (€86bn)to its asset repurchase facility, the timing of the announcement took everyone by surprise – including those in the pension industry, who immediately called for an “urgent” meeting with the regulator.
