All Features articles – Page 112
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Features
A tricky rebalancing act
Last month I attended Lazard Asset Management’s annual investment dinner, where the guest speaker was Peter Mandelson. Lord Mandelson spent eight years as UK Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills and European Commissioner for Trade, so I considered my questions carefully.
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Features
Search for advantage in a crowded market
Why launch an emerging market debt (EMD) strategy when there are already 40-plus institutional competitors in the market? First State Investments – which has just hired Helene Williamson from F&C Asset Management along with Jan-Markus May, Manuel Cañas and Philip Fielding to run the strategy – did not make the decision for short-term reasons, according to Gary Withers, the firm’s EMEA managing director.
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Features
Seeking regulatory advantage
Gail Moss reports on the progress pension fund associations are making as they seek to influence future legislation
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Features
Take a leaf out of Apple’s book
In the third in a new series of articles, Neeraj Sahai and Amin Rajan argue that robust innovations require robust processes and robust drivers
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Features
A central Asian hub
Kazakhstan’s pension reforms are a success and the country has a sophisticated financial set-up, writes Iain Morse
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Features
Tactics before strategy?
Finally on 26 July, the International Accounting Standards Board launched its public consultation on the shape of its future agenda. “In particular,” it would seem, “IASB is seeking feedback on how it should balance the development of financial reporting with the maintenance of IFRSs and – with consideration of our time and resource constraints – those areas of financial reporting that should be given the highest priority for further improvement,” It is perhaps the most succinct statement you will find anywhere in the consultation paperwork.
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Features
Catastrophic year is a signal to buy
More pension funds are investing in insurance-linked securities. Daniel Grieger and Kristina Poliakova argue that recent natural catastrophes have made them even more attractive
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Features
Diary of an Investor: Plain talking
This week I read about a new initiative calling itself the 300 Club.
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Features
French regulator urges investment in SMEs
The French government’s initiative to set up a private equity fund with institutional investor capital to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) secure investments comes as a surprise, considering the bad press accorded to private equity in France since 2008.
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Features
(Really) high yields
Dramatic repricing has opened up opportunities in high-yield, finds Lynn Strongin Dodds
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Features
Still as safe as houses?
Denmark’s mortgage bonds have never defaulted – in 215 years. Rachel Fixsen reports on why questions are suddenly being asked
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Features
ATP judges NOW is the time to enter the UK
ATP’s confirmation that it will be moving into the UK pension market was not, in itself, surprising. As anticipated, Morten Nilsson – now both head of ATP’s international operations and the chief executive-elect for its UK entity NOW Pensions – announced that the defined contribution (DC) scheme’s assets would be ...
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Features
Mariska van der Westen: Just who can you trust?
In the Netherlands, as elsewhere, the trustee model has come under intense scrutiny after the credit crisis. Dutch pension funds lost €120bn in 2008, €20bn of which can be chalked up to poor execution, the so-called ‘implementation shortfall’. Studies have found that trustee boards often lack the knowledge and expertise ...
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Features
Swiss funds welcome minimum exchange rate
The recent falls in equity and bond markets – added to the losses from foreign exchange risks – have caused Swiss pension funds to shiver in recent months. But the decision taken by the Swiss National Bank (SNB) on 6 September to set a minimum exchange rate of CHF1.20 to ...
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Features
The attractions of age as an asset class
Delegates at September’s Longevity Seven conference in Frankfurt discussed the practicalities of a liquid longevity market and who might invest in it, should old age become an asset class.
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Features
From our perspective: A very bumpy ride
Bumpy flights have predictable and unpredictable outcomes: you know the ride will be more uncomfortable and some of the passengers may be sick. You just don’t know precisely when you’re going to hit the turbulence, or whether you or the person next to you is going to be the one who needs the sick bag. You might end up landing at a different airport altogether if the flight is diverted.
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Features
Responding to the wake-up call
In the third article in the current series, Nick Lyster and Amin Rajan argue that only a gold standard in client engagement will deliver decent innovation outcomes
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Features
Central direction, local implementation
Liam Kennedy spoke with Benedikt Köster and Sven Rogge about Deutsche Post DHL’s pension risk management framework and its implementation
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Features
Dark clouds from Europe
Hans Walter Scheurer discusses the recent European discussions on an appropriate European solvency regime for capital-backed occupational retirement provision
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Features
Measuring pension fund costs
Gail Moss gives practical advice to trustee boards looking to manage investment fees and other costs
