All Features articles – Page 428
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Features
ABP launches DC top-up
Europe’s largest pension fund, the e150bn ABP scheme for Dutch civil servants, is to introduce a defined contribution (DC) type, top-up arrangement for employees on June 1, taking advantage of a change in the Dutch tax regime that occurred at the start of this year. From January 1, the Dutch ...
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Features
Opening up trading accounts
To help professional investors, such as pension funds, hedge funds and insurers,who want to trade in options and futures, the former Amsterdam Exchanges (now Euronext Amsterdam) introduced professional clearing accounts (PCAs) a few years ago . This is an exclusive clearing facility for professional investors. These accounts allow professional investors ...
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Features
Industrialists call for action
The pensions debate in Europe has been given a boost by the substantial might of the European Round Table of Industrialists (ERT), whose members have a combined turnover of e950bn and employ over 4m people. The ERT turned to the state of Europe’s fragmented pensions industry last year and subsequently ...
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Features
Spanish banks' advantage
It is interesting the lack of interest at an international level about the process of privatisation of Latin American pension systems. This financial service area has a client base of 40m with $80bn under management in eight different countries. But the economic and social advantages of these systems are not ...
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Features
Revolving around custody axis
An integrated approach “to transaction processing, financial logistics, risk management and asset financing supported by state-of-the-art information technology,” -Fortis Bank’s very own description of its ‘information banking’ concept. Admittedly the group has provided each constituent service for years yet according to Marcel Jongmans, head of custody at Fortis, there are ...
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Features
An asset class in their own right?
Given the use of derivatives it is an interesting question to consider whether derivatives should be considered as an asset class in their own right. Derivatives are all about managing risk. They give a financial exposure to the underlying asset or assets on which they are based. There is also ...
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Features
Attitudes are changing
Pension funds are beginning to use derivatives more and more, particularly for asset allocation purposes, hedging their positions and portfolio transitions. Though the use of derivatives is now more common in the UK and the Netherlands, their use across Europe appears to be gaining acceptance. Trevor Robinson of Trevor Robinson ...
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Features
No need to shy away
European pension funds are not the most prolific users of derivatives. However, for some, options, futures and swaps form an integral part of the asset management process. This article provides a broad overview of the use of derivative instruments in several European markets and, more importantly, how these instruments can ...
