All Features articles – Page 113
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Features
Fear, extremes and the euro
August was not all bad: 79.5% of respondents to the Off The Record survey stated that core government bonds had performed well; gold/precious metals (24% of respondents), currency exposures (20.5%) and global macro funds or other hedge funds (17%) also turned up trumps. But of course, that tells its own story: August was all about fear, extremes – and the euro.
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Features
Ukraine’s stock exchanges pepare for rationalisation
Iain Morse explains why the former member of the Soviet bloc has such a complicated system and why it is difficult to change
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Features
Greek myths
Unless you managed to enjoy a proper holiday this summer, you cannot fail to have missed the rumbling Greek debt crisis. Hans Hoogervorst’s summer holiday seems to have been neatly bookended on 4 August by a letter written in his capacity as IASB chairman to Steve Maijoor, head of the European Securities and Markets Authority, and the publication of that letter on 31 August. Europe’s banks, it seems, might not have been observing the spirit of IAS 39’s impairment methodology.
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Features
No Greek tragedy
Well, things didn’t get much better in the markets after our long family drive back from the Italian Riviera to The Hague in August – volatility continued on the markets and it became clear that when it comes to the euro, plan ‘A’ isn’t up to much and plan ‘B’ doesn’t exist.
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Features
Liam Kennedy: Two paths, not irreconcilable
Two books landed on my desk in September – one on the subject of good pension governance, the other on retirement income.
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Features
Martin Steward: Trigger unhappy
When does a tactical loosening of a strategy become a panic? And when does panic start to undermine the strategy itself? If your strategy is liability-driven investing (LDI), you might well ask. It wasn’t long ago that plummeting yields were trumpeted as the vindication of LDI. At the end of 2009, celebrating the sixth anniversary of the pioneering Friends Provident Pension Scheme/Merrill Lynch transaction, Redington observed that UK 30-year real yields had fallen 126bps in that time. Around the same time Lane Clark and Peacock compared the 10% loss on the average FTSE100 pension scheme’s assets with the 3% gain on Friends Provident’s during 2008.
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Features
Jim Robinson: I’m waiting for the alien invasion
Two snippets of news recently caught my eye for peculiar reasons. I say ‘peculiar’ because this summer has brought many eyebrow-raising news stories, including the collapse of the Greek economy, the sovereign debt crisis, the News of the World hacking scandal, the US credit downgrade, the panic in equity markets ...
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Features
Liam Kennedy: Break some policy eggs
After years of poorly conceived occupational pensions policy, the UK is finally attempting to remedy the situation – at least in the defined contribution area.
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Features
Irish pension schemes face closure pressure
The stock market volatility witnessed in August has had differing effects on pension funds, depending on the country and its approach to pension investment. In the UK, it has resulted in higher deficits, increasing the possibility of an insurance buy-in and in the Netherlands, it has caused coverage ratios to ...
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Features
Volatility hits some more than others
Most European pension funds put on a brave face during the wild stock market swings at the end of last month, but some handled the pressure better than others. The larger Dutch funds initially adopted a rather phlegmatic attitude as the panic first set in, emphasising the long-term nature of ...
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Features
Martin Steward: Mayhem on Wall Street – and Main Street
As the kids ran riot across England on 8 August, traders nursed a one-month stock market loss of 15%. I don’t suppose the rioters were thrown into panic by their Bloomberg screens, but this was a striking coincidence for long-term investors to ponder.
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Features
DC products 2.0
The new generation of DC products may well evolve in the way that the internet has turned into web 2.0, according to Nick Lyster and Amin Rajan
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Features
IAS19 washes whiter
Stephen Bouvier assesses some reactions to the revised IAS19 accounting provisions on employee benefits
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Features
From our perspective: All-terrain vehicles
As one commentator points out in this issue, Dutch pension funds were regarded as high performance cars in the early 1990s. High equity allocations and a cash-flow positive status meant many enjoyed years of good returns in the 1980s and 90s, riding the heights of the equity bull market and barely scathed by the 1987 crash. Perceived as ‘rich’, by politicians, they could be taxed and any remaining surplus distributed to employers.
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Features
Attention to themes for the long term
Alternative indices may still represent a small portion of the market, but could become much more important in future because they satisfy investor needs for stability and diversity beyond traditional indices. This is the conviction of MSCI, one of the largest providers in this industry, as Theodore Niggli, head of the index business at MSCI, explains.
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Features
Funds unfazed by ban
Almost 70% of respondents to this month’s Off The Record survey told us they had not decided to suspend securities lending in light of recent market turbulence and the short-selling bans imposed by four European countries. However, a Danish fund that had decided to suspend securities lending stated that they had taken this action as “the earnings are too little compared with the risks”.
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Features
Different policies on insurance
Using insurance firms to provide protection for pension fund liabilities is a popular solution among DB schemes. Gail Moss looks at the various forms these insurance policies can take
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Features
Pieter’s Italian job
The best thing about August is holidays – this year two weeks by the beach in on the Italian Riviera with my wife and children. Italy is the best for family holidays; everything is to hand. Life is relaxed, the weather is fine, the food is good and the wine flows in the evening.
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Features
The long and short of it
With the deep-value trade over and macroeconomic volatility abundant, Lynn Strongin Dodds assesses the case for absolute return in credit
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Features
Surprise tactics
Martin Steward spoke with Paul Haines, CIO of Trafalgar House Pension Trust, about its break with tradition to launch a pioneering investment strategy
