All Features articles – Page 254
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Features
Striking the regulatory balance
Since I became president of the European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA) in 2002, I have found strong agreement within the fund industry that adherence to ethical standards and sound conduct of business rules is in our own interest. Investment managers have a particular fiduciary duty to act in ...
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Features
Bandwagon begins to roll
Pension funds in Europe have been stepping up their use of external currency managers. Bill Muysken, global head of research at Mercer Investment Consulting in London, says there has been a rise in the number of pension funds seeking external currency managers. During 2004, he says, 28 of Mercer’s clients ...
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Features
Between a rock and a hard place
In ancient Greece, people who wanted to have their future forecast travelled to Apollo’s temple in Delphi, where the dangerous journey was generally rewarded with an answer, albeit ambiguous. Nobody questioned the answers, because they were supposed to come from Apollo himself. But pilgrims who tenaciously interpreted the god’s messages ...
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Features
Bullish on commodities
IPE asked three pension funds in three countries – the Netherlands, Portugal and Switzerland – the same question: ‘Do you agree with investment guru Jim Rogers that commodities are the only pure bull market in the world?’ Here are their answers: Vera Kupper Staub, CIO of Pensionskasse der Stadt ...
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Features
BVK spreads its wings
Germany’s biggest pension provider, the multi-employer Bayerische VersorgungsKkammer, is about to become bigger. It is to add another occupational group – the psychologists – to the 12 already covered. “This is a brand new arrangement with just 1,000 members to start with, so for reasons of economy of operations, they ...
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Features
Caught on camera
Delegates to the National Association of Pension Funds’ annual investment conference in Edinburgh in March may have noticed the TV screens dotted around the venue showing interviews with pension personalities. Leading UK pension industry figures such as Railpen’s Chris Hitchen and incoming NAPF chairman Robin Ellison were giving their views ...
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Features
The 'undramatising' chairman
Sigbjørn Johnsen says that when he was approached to head a commission intended to coax a consensus on pension reform from Norway’s political parties he saw it as “quite a challenge”, sidestepping phrases like ‘poison chalice’ and ‘herding cats’. “During the 1990s there had been a number of reports on ...
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Features
Making the right choice
For the majority of pension funds, taking on a multi-manager is an all-encompassing decision that can risk making the trustees look like they are just following the latest fad without boosting returns. As a result, trustees or those in charge of the pension scheme are being more cautious than multi-managers ...
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Features
Who's for commodities
Well, what is an investment in commodities? Why does it seem to be flavour of the month? Certainly, if it is an investment in say the Goldman Sachs Commodities Index it is not necessarily an investment in commodity Prices. When looking at a commodity index investment one must look at ...
