All Features articles – Page 307
-
Features
Getting the best from actuaries
For many pension plans, the actuary is a sort of shaman, a person with supra-human abilities in foreseeing the future of assets and liabilities, and special powers to control the solvency level of the pension fund. However, the belief in actuarial shamanism has recently been fading somewhat. Many things have ...
-
Features
'Add return - reduce risk'
Increasing accounting and regulatory pressures on UK pension funds will compel them to at least consider including currency management in their investment strategy, according to James Binny, director of FX analytics and risk advisory at ABN Amro. Pressure is likely to come from the new accounting standard, FRS 17 and ...
-
Features
Market advances to continue
Equity and bond markets made further progress during February, as investors reflected upon an economic background that continues to provide a sufficiently mixed picture to enable both asset classes to prosper. Emerging markets, particularly in Asia and Eastern Europe once again showed some of the best returns in $ terms, ...
-
Features
Japan's economy - turning a corner again
It is 15 years since Japan’s bubble burst and several nascent recoveries have fizzled out along the way and the economy has repeatedly dipped back onto recession. This time, however, things may at last be different. Growth surprises have, unusually for Japan, been to the upside and the GDP report ...
-
Features
Closed fund with open agenda
The story of the British Coal Staff Superannuation Scheme (BCSSS) is part of the story of the UK’s nationalised coal mining. The fund was created in 1947 as the industry came into public ownership to look after the staff including senior underground personnel, and became a closed fund in 1994, ...
-
Features
Shedding light on the long road ahead
Following the EU Pension Fund Directive, much of the pensions focus of last month’s Seventh Annual World Cup of Investment Management in Barcelona was on trustees and the structure of the pensions industry. At the conference Alan Pickering, chairman of the European Federation for Retirement Provision, said that the EU ...
-
Features
Currency alpha
Active currency management is providing alpha, according to a new study by Russell/Mellon CAPS. The study showed that 87% of currency overlay accounts generated positive excess returns over the past five years. The percentage was even higher in US$ accounts where 93% of accounts produced positive returns. The Russell/Mellon CAPS ...
-
Features
The Anglo-Saxon lesson
I was fascinated by reports of one of the more provocative talks given over the last few weeks was from a former chairman of the UK’s National Association of Pension Funds. Alan Pickering’s speech concerned the future of UK trustees. Given at a European Bond Conference in early April, Pickering, ...
