All Features articles – Page 201
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Features
Double challenge for open funds
COVIP (Italy’s pension fund regulatory authority) gave the first green lights to open pension funds OPFs) in July 1998 following legislation originally enacted in 1993. So far they have not been particularly effective. Therefore, the past government decided to pass a new reform originally scheduled for 2006 but which has ...
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Features
Legislation changes in nutshell
The law decree 5 December 2005 n.252, in application of the last pension reform (law 23 August 2004 n.243), has significantly modified the current law on pension funds (law decree 21 April 1993, n.124). The new law is likely to pave the way for major change in Italian pensions, moving ...
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Features
Reform comes to a crossroads
After three and a half reforms during the past decade, restructuring the pension system is no longer a top priority in the Italian political agenda. The newly appointed Prodi government, however, will hardly be able to ignore the issue, as Mario Draghi, the new governor of the Bank of Italy, ...
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Features
Reducing the deficit top priority
With the third largest budget deficit in the world, Italy needs its bond market to be more attractive than ever to investors. Now that Romano Prodi is officially in charge, the realities of sorting out the burgeoning deficit hit home hard. He has acknowledged that the public accounts are in ...
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Features
Devil is in FX detail
Direct and in many cases very significant financial benefit can accrue to pension funds and investment managers that pay closer attention to their foreign exchange (FX) trades. UK-based benchmarking firm Amaces has launched a new module in its CMS analytical and benchmarking service that covers all FX deals. The module ...
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Features
Waiting to be discovered
When pension funds invest in traditional assets like equities and bonds they expose themselves to unintended sources of risk. The main sources unintentional risk are volatility and dividend yield for equities and credit spreads and liquidity for bonds. Once they detect these sources of risk most funds will either carry ...
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Features
Fascinated by formulas
What was your first full-time job – and do you remember what you were paid at the time? In 1961 I took what I intended to be a job during a school holiday at what turned out to be an actuarial bureau. I was paid 375 gilders (€170) per month. ...
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Features
Fiduciary move for the long haul
The Dutch pension industry has seen two ground breaking initiatives in the past 12 months, both involving US based asset managers. The first was the decision by the electronics firm Philips to hand the management of its pension fund to Merrill Lynch Investment Managers The second was the decision of ...
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Features
Go forth and multiply - or pay
Adult children have historically been the pensions providers of the elderly, providing their parents with financial support, shelter, or care. In the past, this arrangement gave couples a strong incentive for having children. Today, as the Swedish economist Gunnar Myrdal predicted, state pay-as-you-go (PAYG) systems have removed this incentive. Pensions ...
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Features
Regional funds reach the parts
The recent pension reform, approved by the former Berlusconi government with law decree 252/05, permits Italian regions to set up ‘regional’ pension funds. This development seems quite unique in Europe: why should regions be empowered to set up their own pension funds? Under Italian law (law decree 124/93 reformed with ...
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Features
New models but same game
A lot is expected of pension trustees these days – more than is reasonable for them to cope with on their own or relying on just their current advice, some would say. However, they are being offered affordable extra help, including for the provision of investment banking-style services that they ...
