All Features articles – Page 338
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Features
Getting the admin sorted
The slow pace of development of defined contribution (DC) pension plans across Europe – whether at the national or pan-European level – has frustrated the growth plans of the investment management industry. While many of the political and social factors impeding DC plans are outside the direct control of the ...
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Features
All change ahead for spread options
European companies operating share option plans for their employees are likely to see their reported earnings reduced, if draft accounting standards come in to force. In November 2002, the UK and International Accounting Standards (IAS) Boards published draft accounting rules (FRED31 and ED2) requiring share-based payments to be recognised in ...
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Features
Mapping out the road ahead
It wouldn’t have been hard to guess the theme dominating the concerns of CEOs from Europe’s leading asset management houses over the last year, but seeing it in black and white (pages 2-9) brings it home that much more firmly. Current equity market conditions, of course, are stretching the minds ...
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Features
Luxembourg beats the trend
In 2002, Luxembourg Spezialfonds defied the generally negative volume growth in both the Luxembourg and other European investment fund markets. Fund volumes increased, contrary to expectations, by 5.5%, compared to an increase of 6.1% the previous year. Volumes in Luxembourg funds open to the general public (public funds), however, were ...
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Features
Between a rock and a hard place
Germany is in an unenviable situation. Its people are over-reliant on a state pension system that is no longer financially viable, and the Riester reform, designed to develop a third pillar pension system, and boost the unpopular second pillar pension system, has not been as successful as expected. If the ...
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Features
The bond error
Only an actuary or an accountant could think that pension liabilities are at all like fixed interest bonds, not subject to the whims of price and wage inflation. Yet Germany is about to make the same mistake that the US, Britain, and Holland have already made, of thinking that bonds ...
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Features
Borsa's place in the sun
When Borsa Italiana, the Italian Stock Exchange, introduced a central counterparty (CCP) for its cash markets on 23 May, it was the latest step in a re-engineering of Italy’s post-trade environment aimed at greater integration of the country’s markets with those of Europe. The ultimate aim of a series of ...
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Features
Building a pension factory
It was more than two years ago that HypoVereinsbank, the second largest German retail bank, decided to strengthen its position in the pensions area. This was a brave move at the time, as for decades pensions had been a stronghold of the insurance industry, protected by tax regulations that provided ...
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Features
Clamping down on costs
There is more pressure than ever on pension funds to keep a lid on their costs. “That’s because of the current environment,” says Ron Hitchens, financial controller of the Xerox pension fund in the UK. “Falling markets and therefore falling values of pension funds are happening at a time when ...
