All Features articles – Page 271
-
Features
Tying the pieces together
Is asset allocation objective? Why are rational, intelligent individuals able to produce two radically different asset allocations both seeking to fulfil a 20-year objective? The answer lies in the conflicts of interest that are embedded in the institutional fund management industry. The fundamental point is that what the risk stakeholders ...
-
Features
Technology's pivotal role
German pension funds face a range of challenges depending on the organisations and members they serve, and the pressures upon them to adjust to the current market environment. Technology plays a key role in enabling them to operate more efficiently, manage their investments with greater sophistication and meet members needs. ...
-
Features
Taking no prisoners
When the star of the cult Sixties TV show The Prisoner was not being pursued around the Welsh coastline by amorphous white blobs or grappling manfully with yet another convoluted, would-be existential conceit, Patrick McGoohan could be found securing his place in the glittering pantheon of pop culture with the ...
-
Features
TAA is put on trial
Tactical asset allocation (TAA) is the talk of the town again. Once known as market timing (before that term became associated with more unsavoury practices), the basic tenet is to buy the market when it’s low, and sell high. No one doubts that this would add significant value if done ...
-
Features
Trouble at the top
Last December Ireland’s asset management industry was rocked by the sixth defection from Bank of Ireland Asset Management (BIAM) to Autralian financial services group Perpetual Trustees. BIAM was still reeling from the initial shock of the first four departures in October; now concerns regarding the bank’s ability to maintain its ...
-
Features
A1 at Lloyd's
The job of the Lloyd’s Register is to examine merchant ships and classify them according to their condition. The highest classification, ‘A1 at Lloyds’, indicates by the letter A that a ship’s hull is in first class order and by the number 1 that the trappings are also sound; in ...
-
Features
Thinking about direct
The City of Zurich of Pension Fund, with assets of CHF 11.4bn (e7.4bn), moved into hedge fund investment at the end of 2000 with a hedge fund allocation of 2.5% which increased to 5% at the beginning of 2002. The main aim was risk diversification, says Vera Kupper Staub, the ...
-
Features
Scanning the future at ABP
At ABP Investments - part of ABP, the Dutch civil servants pension fund (e160bn) - a disciplined three-stage approach is being used for scanning the future and interpreting current developments on financial markets. Both strategic and tactical asset allocation, asset/liability management, stress testing and the preparation of investment plans, benefit ...
-
Features
ABP, USS in warning over global drugs industry
Two of Europe’s largest pension funds, Stichting Pensioenfonds ABP and the Universities Superannuation Scheme, have warned of continued “downward valuation” of the global pharmaceutical industry. And they’ve called for a new acknowledgement of the “mutual inter-dependence” between drugs firms and shareholders. The comments come in a new report called ‘Pharma ...
-
Features
Two-way traffic ahead
Asset management in the EU’s central and east European members states remains dominated by the second pillar pensions system that most of the countries have adopted. While some of the pension funds rank among the top 1,000 in Europe, the investment fund industry is still small. According to data from ...
