All Features articles – Page 185
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Features
Post-election pension blues
US pension fund industry players are bracing for the new Democratic Congress. Their lobbyists and attorneys had hoped to obtain some industry-friendly amendments to the new Pension Protection Act, signed last August by President George W Bush. But with the new Democratic majority in both the House and the Senate ...
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Features
Joining forces to cut costs and boost capacity
Innovation “is our competitive advantage,” boasts Denmark’s PKA Pension Funds collective. It cites four areas it believes backs up this claim: its outsourcing strategy, socially responsible investments, its real estate portfolio and its hybrid structure. “The innovation in outsourcing was to achieve an effective administration policy,” the fund says. A ...
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Features
Stress-tests build confidence in future funding levels
Founded in 1968, Amonis is the professional pension scheme for Belgium’s doctors, dentists and pharmacists. It is a hybrid defined benefit and defined contribution structure with €932m under management for some 23,300 active members and 3,500 pensioners. Amonis entered the IPE Awards on the back of its confidence in the ...
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Features
Building up pensions or pulling them down?
Europe’s financial supervisory authorities are in an invidious position with regard to occupational pensions. They are damned if they do tighten up on regulation of pensions schemes and damned if they do not. The collapse of the equity markets early in the new century clearly called for some tough action by regulators, but was the action too tough?
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Features
New company takes on the challenge of direct investment
ABP claims to be a trend-setter among pension funds in hedge funds, having incorporated the still somewhat feared alternative asset class into its investment strategy some four years ago.“The initial effort focused on hiring investment talent with hands-on experience in several hedge fund strategies as well as developing comprehensive due ...
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Features
Streamlined structure and clear-cut principles pay off
Bedrijfstakpensioenfonds Metalektro (PME), the €18bn pension fund for the Dutch mechanical and engineering industries, says its success is down to its streamlined and efficient structure and clear-cut principles that govern the way it works. To begin with, PME has a strong executive board that determines basic policy. This is supported ...
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Features
The shape of things to come
Liability driven investment (LDI) has become a high priority in shaping asset allocation for some pension funds in Europe where full-funding is a necessity, but some say there are complicated issues around it. In many continental European countries, liability-driven investment is less of a driving force within asset allocation than ...
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Features
Complexity makes life simpler for small fund
Thales Pensionskasse, the pension fund for the Swiss subsidiary of global aerospace, naval and engineering consultancy giant, Thales, may be small but that has not hindered its progress or its chances of winning an IPE Award for best country scheme. Established in 1996, the scheme is a defined contribution arrangement ...
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Features
Legislation keeps consultants on their toes
While demand for advisory services in Spain has been squeezed, legal changes have helped keep things ticking over in Portugal. Rachel Fixsen reports
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Features
Shining a new light on an old continent
The dramatic economic changes taking place in Africa means there is a case for investors taking a closer look at what is happening, as outlined by Roelof Horne
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Features
The dominance continues
In securities services, competition is fierce but local players still win out. Heather McKenzie reports
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Features
Setting new standards for Polish corporate governance
As a former member of the Eastern Bloc and a new member of the EU, Poland is experiencing not only rapid economic growth but a fundamental restructuring of its economy. So the development of good corporate governance standards among the investing community is not only a necessity, it is a ...
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Features
Green focus sets examples in returns and culture
The Bonus Pensionskassen opted as early as 1998 to adopt a sustainable socially responsible investment strategy. “We recognised way back then that companies that managed in a so-called ‘sustainable’ manner represented good long-term value and produced more attractive returns,” the scheme says. Since then, Bonus claims it has consistently implemented ...
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Features
Direct investment provides instant diversification
Established in 1992, Denmark’s Industriens Pension (IP) is a young scheme, and perhaps its youth explains its dynamic approach to private equity at a time when older, somewhat more established, schemes still regard the burgeonig asset class with a degree of scepticism and reserve. But that does not mean it ...
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Features
Strong, diversified returns repay pace-setting strategy
Since ABP set up its hedge fund strategy in 2002, it has been a pace-setter in the Dutch pensions community, and as such is a worthy winner of the Netherlands award. ABP was one of the first funds to build its own best-in-class hedge fund investment programme, on a ...
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Features
No easy entry strategy
Opinion is divided on whether European small and mid caps can add sufficient value to a manager’s overall portfolio. Joseph Mariathasan reports
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Features
Filling in an empty space
Hedge funds and private equity have the depth of experience needed, argue proponents of restructuring. David White reports
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Features
Strong funded position enhanced by returns
An exciting aspect of the European pension industry in recent years has been the attempts by governments to reform their pay-as-you-go systems and encourage the formation of capitalised funds to help bear the burden of providing post-retirement incomes for today’s employees. They may look to mature capitalised markets like the ...
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Features
Impact of increased life expectancy
IPE asked three pension funds - in Germany, Iceland and Slovakia - the same question: ‘How has longevity affected you and what do you do to manage it?’ Here are their answers:
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Features
Investing through the FII route
India has made great strides in attracting foreign investment and there is no shortage of high quality asset managers operating in the region, writes Richard Newell
