All Features articles – Page 114
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FeaturesInvestment innovations: a scorecard
Pension plans have an open mind about innovations, say Neeraj Sahai, Jim McCaughan and Amin Rajan
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Keen on illiquidity
Peter Wallach of the UK’s Merseyside Pension Fund tells Nina Röhrbein how the scheme’s philosophy affects its investment strategy
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MNOPF to reshape UK fiduciary landscape?
When the Merchant Navy Officers’ Pension Fund (MNOPF) announced it was appointing Towers Watson as delegated CIO, the UK pension industry took notice. While the £3.3bn (€3.7bn) scheme may not be big compared with some of the Dutch pension giants, it is influential in the UK, especially with its appointment establishing Towers in UK fiduciary management.
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Event horizons
Martin Steward finds an unusual corporate event cycle teeing up opportunities for event-driven hedge funds – but not necessarily classic merger arbitrage or distressed debt
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FeaturesNordic investors warm to EMD
Investors in Nordic countries show rising interest in emerging market debt as a way to take part in the emerging market story. Jan Willers reports on findings of a recent survey
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Systemic reforms just a utopian dream
Experts and analysts believe the idea of a systemic reform of France’s pension industry faces major hurdles and that it is unlikely to be implemented due to funding and political wrangling. They also say that building up a new pension regime from scratch would be the best way to simplify the French system and avoid increasing the deficit.
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Easier said than done
Often the solution to a problem is as complex as the problem itself. And a lot of things are easier said than done.
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Opening up custody
Planned merger of Russia’s rival exchanges could clear the way for securities lending, writes Iain Morse
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Pressure to scale up to hold down costs
Gail Moss looks at how multinational companies are grappling with pension scheme underfunding in the face of rising longevity pension scheme underfunding in the face of rising longevity
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Convergence over harmonisation
Niels Kortleve, Barthold Kuipers and Wilfried Mulder offer reasons why the European Commission should focus on convergence of EU pension regulation rather than harmonisation
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Pointless chatter
Without any irony, the IASB is about to give you the opportunity to take part in a consultation process on the future shape of its entire work plan. As a 15 June IASB meeting paper explains: “The consultation process was introduced by the trustees of the IFRS Foundation in 2010 in response to comments received during the constitution review of the IFRS Foundation.” A good time to revisit pension plan measurement? Reality check.
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Diary of an Investor: Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose
We Dutch value consensus – perhaps we even need it in the way we need our dikes and polders to manage our low-lying lands.
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Bernardino: Solvency II not a simple exercise
With the introduction of Solvency II less than a year and a half away, the pensions industry is still unclear what kind of regime it will face and how aspects of the Directive, drafted for insurance companies, may be applied to diverse European pensions.
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Should fiduciaries manage assets?
Anton Van Nunen writes on the changing role of fiduciary managers. Should they manage pension assets themselves despite the potential conflict of interest?
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AIMA pushes for increased alignment
Eat your own cooking – that is the advice of CalPERS’s Kurt Silberstein, who recommends hedge fund managers add a little more of themselves to the pot if they want to entice pension funds to the table. In common parlance, hedge funds must do more to ‘align interests’ with investors.
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Not everyone loves the Pensions Agreement
After much wrangling, heel-dragging and finger-pointing, the Dutch government and social partners have hammered out a Pensions Agreement. In mid-June, the social partners and the cabinet unveiled an agreement that aims to increase the official retirement age for the first pillar (AOW) to 66 in 2020 and to 67 in 2025. First pillar benefits will be raised an extra 0.6% annually, amounting to indexation in line with real earned wages, a major demand of umbrella union FNV. Early retirement will remain an option, but against a loss of 6.5% of the AOW for each year.
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Actual results may vary
On Friday 10 June, the Dutch government, together with employer and employee representatives, signed a comprehensive agreement to drastically reform the Dutch pension system.
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An avarice for absolute return
Pirkko Juntunen looks at the unique pension investment policy employed by Swedish construction company Skanska
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Risk abides, man changes his mind
Financial risks grow and subside with economic cycles but always remain. Human attitudes towards them also vary. Arguably they matter more and often change the most. Allianz Global Investors’ first RiskMonitor survey, conducted in conjunction with IPE, paints a picture of pension funds’ current attitudes to risk and how they are changing.
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Martin Steward: The numbers game
Everyone knows about the spectacular growth of online gaming over the past 10 years. You probably have companies making money from this business tucked away in your portfolio. Less well-known is its effect on some venerable casino-based games. It hasn’t drawn players away from casinos – quite the opposite – ...
