All Features articles – Page 74
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Features
Investment Solutions Survey: A wide constellation
IPE’s 2015 investment solutions survey explained
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FeaturesIceland: A glacial pace of change
Pension funds have welcomed the long-awaited lifting of capital controls imposed during the financial crisis as they look to reallocate their assets
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Features
Trade Finance Briefing: Doors open to trade
Greater liquidity and capital constraints have forced many banks to scale back or close down their trade finance operations, creating opportunities for non-bank lenders, says Luigi La Ferla
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Features
China Briefing: Foreigners eye Chinese shares
Access to China A-shares, one of the largest equity markets, is becoming easier for overseas investors
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Features
Focus Group: From a board perspective
Just over half of the funds polled for this month’s Focus Group consider diversity on a pension fund board to be important
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Features
Belgium’s pensions challenge
Belgium’s pension plan sponsors have struggled to adapt the International Accounting Standards (IAS) 19 accounting model
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Executive pay: Taking back control
Asset owners may now be able to challenge pay inequality more aggressively, using reports backed by staunchly pro-capitalist institutions, write Jonathan Williams
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Features
Bigger is not always better when it comes to pension funds
A recent working paper of the Dutch central bank on costs sheds light on a debate playing out in several European capitals over the size of retirement institutions
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Asset Allocation: The big picture
This year looks like it could be remembered as the Bund sell-off year, or perhaps even the Bund Blowback, with one of the intraday price falls larger than any recorded (by Bloomberg) in the past quarter century
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Features
Ahead of the Curve: Peer share efficiency
John Alexander examines the use of active share, active share efficiency and peer share efficiency for institutional investors
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Features
Accounting Matters: Feeling the pressure
The verdict on 2014 is that it was a volatile year for pension schemes. Long-dated interest rates fell sharply, bringing with them a corresponding increase in pension liabilities
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FeaturesHow we run our money: ABB
Elisabeth Bourqui, head of group pensions at ABB, explains the Swiss multinational’s innovative approach to managing its 100 defined benefit pension plans
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FeaturesIPE 360 Conference Report: The tricky question of costs
The tricky question of costs was one of the key topics for debate at the IPE 360 Conference at the London Stock Exchange in mid-June
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Features
Sovereign wonderland
Potential investors in Europe’s sovereign bond markets may feel they have stepped into Alice in Wonderland. Many sovereign debt markets are offering return-free risks, and negative bond yields make a mockery of traditional explanations of the time value of money. What we are seeing is the end result of two powerful but opposing forces within Europe that reflect the chaotic responses to the global financial crisis.
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Features
QE: Uncertainty is Queen
It is unsurprising that Dutch pension funds sought to voice their concerns about the effect of QE on their sector before that decision was ratified
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Features
From Our Perspective: Unity in opposition
They may not be wielding pitchforks but Europe’s pension fund community is of one mind: the stress test proposal of EIOPA is something they, their sponsors, their regulators and, above all, their members, do not need
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FeaturesHow we run our money: PFZW
PFZW’s decision to divest from hedge funds was just one element of a comprehensive investment overhaul. Peter Borgdorff and Jan Willem van Oostveen talk about their fund’s renewed strategy
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Features
Infrastructure: Getting by with a little help from your friends
The UK government has long promised infrastructure assets for pension funds to invest, but with international schemes often larger, we looks at how domestic ones participate
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Features
No smoke without fire
There is a strange rhetoric surrounding the recent sell-off in European bonds, which pushed yields up for the first time in many months
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Features
First-quarter results: Equities lead the way, but pressures remain
Pension funds around Europe saw their asset levels boosted by the rise in share prices during the first quarter, but a range of factors has kept many funds under pressure on other fronts
