All Features articles – Page 135
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FeaturesThe yoke of uncertainty
In ‘Much Ado About Nothing’, William Shakepseare describes a February face as “full of frost, of storm and cloudiness”. The turning of the year has certainly done little to lift the mood of institutional investors. After briefly warming to risky assets at the end of 2008, 2009 has begun with ...
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Features
Doing it whose way?
Frank Sinatra’s career was famously long-lived. It was also notable for a series of farewell concerts, at one of which the singer collapsed on stage. He was 78 at the time and died at 82. For DB pension funds, seeing members over 80 at annual pensioner meetings is not unusual, ...
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FeaturesOverlooked models for distressed plays
Shamillia Sivathambu argues that emerging market debt offers opportunities for institutions searching for undervalued opportunities
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Features
Why the FTK is future-proof
In this instalment of our series of discussion papers on defined benefit pensions, Klaas Knot argues why the Dutch FTK pension solvency system is robust and can cope with future developments and goals
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FeaturesInnovation: Used, misused and abused
In the third in a series of articles on a new report, Amin Rajan laments that alpha has been everywhere except in performance numbers
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Features
Looking ahead to recession
Yield curve/duration The US economy slid into recession in December 2007, says the National Bureau of Economic Research. As we start 2009 the extreme pain being felt in both the jobs and the housing markets is not easing; figures from the Mortgage Bankers Association suggest that in Q3 2008 one ...
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FeaturesBanks hit the ‘sweet spot’
Unglamorous unleveraged bank loans are suddenly de rigueur for the long-term investor. David White investigates
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Features
BVK keeps long and short strategy
The pension fund of the Canton of Zurich (BVK) has been investing in commodities since August 2006 when it decided to allocate 4% of its portfolio to commodities. Its strategic exposure consists of seven individual commodity investments in three sub-categories. At end-June 2008 a collateralised commodity index note accounted ...
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FeaturesAn upbeat Christmas carol
In A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens describes his most famous character as follows: “External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge. No warmth could warm, no wintry weather chill him. No wind that blew was bitterer than he, no falling snow was more intent upon its purpose, no pelting ...
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FeaturesA Christian institutional investor
A year ago the Church of Sweden implemented a new investment policy which includes a more sophisticated, layered approach to its ethical investing. Brendan Maton spoke with CIO Anders Thorendal
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FeaturesViews on the year to come
We asked ten CIOs and other senior figures at international assset management firms: ‘Where will investment opportunities lie in 2009?’
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Features
IASB continues its comedy of errors
Further deliberation of the International Accouting Standards Board’s (IASB) preliminary views on pensions accounting kicked-off pretty much as we would expect, with staff failing to meet a self-imposed deadline, and a dose of unnecessary secrecy. The plan, said Andrea Pryde, on 19 November, was to “present an overview of the ...
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Features
Commodity turnaround
With volatility is still at its highest levels (56%), the stock markets again had to face adverse conditions in November and produced a significantly negative return (-7.18%), although this was less than half October’s record. The S&P500 index has now returned to its level of July 2003. Similarly, the commodities ...
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Features
Negative streak continues
Hedge funds continued their negative streak for the sixth month in a row, falling 0.8% as November saw the continuation of several of the dominant themes from September and October: distressed selling, deleveraging and redemptions among hedge funds, heightened volatility and an increasing disconnect between asset prices and underlying fundamentals, ...
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FeaturesPensions portability: Where are we now?
Not quite a dead parrot, it will take a lot longer to get the EU’s pension portability directive back to life, says Gail Moss
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FeaturesThe fetters come off
Until now, Sweden’s AP7 has not had the benefit of a level playing field. That is about to change, finds George Coats
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Features
Tempered optimism across Europe
IPE asked six pension organisations across Europe: ‘How have you been affected by the recent market turmoil?’ Interviews conducted by Nina Röhrbein/Liam Kennedy/George Coats
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FeaturesTemperature gauge
One of the many consequences of Lehman Brothers’ collapse just a few long weeks ago was that it highlighted the various counterparty risks to which pension funds and managers are exposed.
