All Features articles – Page 58
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Features
Conference Report: Defined benefit diagnosed – next, remedies
The future for UK defined benefit (DB) pension schemes, new regulation for master trusts, a visit from the new pensions minister – all this and more was on the agenda of the national pensions association’s annual conference in late October.
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Features
Back to basics
There is a danger that the investment world could pay too much attention to geopolitics in 2017. Although politics is important, there is a risk its current high profile could obscure more fundamental factors.
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Features
Global Debt: Caution in a world awash in debt
John Bilton, Michael Feser and Stephanie Flanders look at the effect that excessive leverage within the global capital markets can have on long-term economic growth
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Features
ATP: Steady as she goes for ATP
The announcement of Christian Hyldahl as ATP’s new chief signals a steady-as-she-goes approach in turbulent financial times, at the same time as a strong focus on operational efficiency for the giant Danish labour market pension fund.
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Features
Women in Asset Management: Redressing the balance
Women remain under-represented in asset management despite substantial success in improving their representation in other professions. Brendan Maton examines attempts to redress the balance
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Features
Interview: Amy Kessler, Prudential Retirement
A novel by a Nobel prizewinner from Portugal is premised on what is perhaps the ultimate nightmare for the global pensions industry. José Saramago’s Intermitências da Morte is based in an unnamed country where, on 1 January, people mysteriously stop dying
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Features
Asset Allocation: The big picture
Bond yields have been rising, which is not that surprising given that sharp sell-offs in government markets have been reasonably frequent in the multi-year bull-run
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Features
India: All to play for
The signs suggest India is poised for dramatic improvements in its economy. But there are challenges around job-creation, education and manufacturing
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Features
Ahead of the Curve: Fintech flies in emerging markets
Fintech is finding a natural home in emerging markets where traditional banks and insurance services are less established. Andrew Ness reports
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Features
Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index: The underestimated impact of ageing
“There is no perfect pension system that can be applied universally,” but the truth of the matter is, some do better than others. In the eighth edition of the Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index (MMGPI), Denmark, the Netherlands and Australia retained the top spots.
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Features
Who’s afraid of securitisation?
The 1933 Disney animation The Three Little Pigs featured Fiddler and Fifer, who believed their straw houses were safe from a marauding wolf. The movie popularised the song Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf; as readers will be aware, the pigs’ straw houses were not safe from the wolf, who blew them down.
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Features
Pensions Accounting: Prisoners of time
The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) has concluded its latest agenda consultation exercise and added a research project to address what it calls “Pension Benefits that Depend on an Asset”. Despite the impressive title, the research is unlikely to cause a flurry of activity on pensions.
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FeaturesIPE Expectations Indicator December 2016
With the US election over, the opportunity of interpreting expectations of managers just prior to it is interesting. There were some interesting changes in the most recent period, but by far the most intriguing was the shifting of expectations to stability in equity markets without significant changes elsewhere.
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FeaturesRegulatory monoculture and systemic risk
What is the connection between tropical fruit and systemic risk? In 1990, when East German citizens demonstrated for freedom and democracy, the banana became a potent symbol of the basic level of prosperity to which they aspired
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Features
Regulation: Pension funds join fray on systemic risk
The consultation by the Financial Stability Board (FSB) on its proposals to address structural vulnerabilities for asset management activities has set off a skirmish between those institutions wanting mandatory stress-tests to include pension and sovereign wealth funds (SWFs), and those that do not.
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Features
UK's LPGS: Mixed reviews for final regulations
Guidance on new investment regulations for UK local government pension schemes (LPGS) has been welcomed for changing the course of asset pooling “for the better”
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Features
Emerging markets make no sense
After poor performances over the past three years, which led to large outflows, EM assets are finding their way back into institutional portfolios
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Features
Focus Group: Warm on EM investment
Just three of the investors polled for this month’s Focus Group have increased their allocation to emerging and frontier markets in the past three years
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FeaturesHow we run our money: Unilever Dutch pension funds
Rob Kragten, CEO, and Michael Kaal, director of finance and risk at the Unilever Dutch pension funds, tell Carlo Svaluto Moreolo about risk management and collective defined contribution
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Features
Securities Lending: More work to be done
Brian Bollen examines the resilience of securities lending as it evolves to meet new challenges and demands in the financial industry
