All Features articles – Page 218
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Features
Germany plans inflation-linked bond issue
German pension funds have been reflecting on the news that Germany plans to issue its first-ever inflation-linked bonds in the near future. The government’s treasurer, Finanzagentur, has confirmed the plans. It did not say when the bonds would be sold, only that the government had empowered it to do so ...
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Features
The great bond shortage?
IPE asked three pension funds in three countries – the Netherlands, the UK and Switzerland: ‘Does the scarcity of high-quality long-term government bonds highlighted by the OECD, pose a problem?’ Here are their answers: Peter Scales, chief executive of the London Pensions Fund Authority, which has AUM of £3.2bn ...
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Features
Bonds worthy of 'Celtic Tiger'
Towards the end of 2005 both Moody’s and Standard and Poor’s (S &P), the rating agencies, reaffirmed Ireland’s AAA credit rating status, both citing the strength of government finances, favourable demographics and future pension liabilities. The National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA), established in December 1990, is justifiably proud of Ireland’s ...
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Features
Dutch Treasury not to issue index-linked bonds
The Dutch State Treasury Agency won’t issue index-linked bonds in the near future, it said in its outlook for 2006. At present, index-linked bonds are not attractive as an instrument for state financing, because they might increase the effect of inflation on the budget, instead of neutralising it, it explained. ...
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Features
Rules trigger CTA boom
To the delight of Germany’s asset management industry, the much-anticipated boom in corporate pensions finally happened last year. And as 2006 begins, it shows no signs of slowing. Interestingly, the type of boom is not what one would normally expect. While corporate pensions have spread dramatically since historic pension reforms ...
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Features
Bostanci wins IPE scholarship
The 2005/6 IPE/AIMSE Scholarship has gone to Sibel Bostanci, head of institutional sales at investment management firm Delta Lloyd in Germany. Wiesbaden-based Bostanci will be attending the AIMSE/Wharton Investment Institute at the Wharton Business School, University of Pennsylvania. The one-week programme is designed to boost sales managers’ marketing and financial ...
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Features
Separating men from boys
As alternative investment managers continue their never-ending search for alpha it is clear that for most the priority is in generating the smoothest returns possible with the lowest possible volatility. In our business - currency - this is problematic as we operate in a universe of limited choice in terms ...
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Features
UK schemes scramble to buy linkers
The Bank of England says UK pension funds are buying index-linked gilts at virtually any price – caught in a vicious circle of falling yields and falling funding ratios. The central bank said demand for index-linked gilts from UK schemes “may have become relatively price inelastic” due to the shift ...
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Features
Closing days of DB schemes
Spiralling costs, regulatory obligations and longevity are among the critical factors putting final salary pension schemes on the proverbial chopping block. Recently, the £2.4bn (€3.5bn) ScottishPower pension fund joined the ranks of Rentokil, Philip Green’s Arcadia retail group and the Co-operative Group, after proposing to shut the doors of its ...
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Features
Proving support for compulsion
There are over 700 pension funds in the Netherlands. Most of them carry out schemes for employees themselves. Eleven funds focus on the liberal professionals. These occupational pensions funds serve physiotherapists, marine pilots, artists, general practitioners, medical consultants, notaries, obstetricians, vets, pharmacists, dentists and the oarsmen of the Rotterdam port. ...
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Features
Market conduct under microscope
Under the renewed Dutch pension law, one of the new tasks of the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) will be the supervision of the quality of information pension funds provide their members and pensioners with a second supervisor for the funds. Within the pensions industry this announcement caused ...
