All Features articles – Page 84

  • Features

    Not the destination but the path

    September 2014 (Magazine)

    Vassilios Papathanakos and David Schofield explain why it’s easier to estimate volatility than forecast returns, and why it matters for superior returns and better risk management

  • Features

    Time for a debate

    September 2014 (Magazine)

    This autumn our government is orchestrating what it calls a ‘national debate’ on the future of our Dutch pension system. We at Wasserdicht Nederland have always taken a prudent approach to our pension schemes and we have remained well funded. Unlike many other Dutch funds, we have not had to implement benefits cuts – something I hope our members appreciate.

  • Features

    Collective lessons from professionals

    September 2014 (Magazine)

    Experience shows that the benefits of intergenerational solidarity and collective pension risk sharing are often not appreciated, particularly by those who feel they are shouldering a greater share of the burden than they ought.

  • Features

    Burying IFRS Stateside

    September 2014 (Magazine)

    For more than a decade, international accountants have dreamed of a single set of global accounting standards. But the failure of standard setters on both sides of the Atlantic to agree on a common treatment for bad-debt provisioning by banks leaves the world facing a multi-GAAP environment for at least a generation, writes Stephen Bouvier

  • Features

    I’ll have my bond; I will not hear thee speak

    September 2014 (Magazine)

    The court scene from The Merchant of Venice dramatises the balance between justice and equity. Argentina’s conflict with its ‘holdout’ creditors, which led to default on its New York-law bonds, suggests that it ought to be required reading for sovereign debt investors.

  • Features

    The changing bond climate

    September 2014 (Magazine)

    Green bonds, until very recently a niche product, are gaining in prominence as the market grows above $500bn (€369bn).

  • Features

    The big picture

    September 2014 (Magazine)

    Asset allocation: Fixed Income, Rates, Currencies

  • Features

    Blank canvas for Swedish banking fund

    September 2014 (Magazine)

    After a year and a half of deliberation, SPK’s new investment strategy is finally coming together. When the SEK24bn (€2.6bn) pension fund for saving bank employees moved into its new premises in central Stockholm at the beginning of the summer, it did so with a completely transformed investment portfolio.

  • Features

    Buy-and-hold birth pangs in Asia

    September 2014 (Magazine)

    In this second article on a new study, Nick Lyster and Amin Rajan debate that the notions of risk premia and time premia are slow to take root in the predominant savings culture of emerging markets.

  • Features

    The Irish word for ‘appropriate’

    September 2014 (Magazine)

    Following a recent High Court ruling, Ireland’s pensions industry has found itself questioning whether the current minimum funding standard (MFS) for schemes can endure.

  • Features

    How we run our money: Aisle four - asset management

    September 2014 (Magazine)

    Steven Daniels, chief investment officer at Tesco Pension Investment, tells Taha Lokhandwala about his role as Tesco’s in-house asset manager

  • Features

    Time for trusteeship

    July 2014 (Magazine)

    Senior staff at China Investment Corporation (CIC) are talking about investment governance these days, reflecting growing recognition of the importance of sound non-executive or supervisory board oversight for all kinds of entities, be they global companies, sovereign wealth entities or pension funds.

  • Features

    Vital statistics

    July 2014 (Magazine)

    Headline numbers may obscure the fact that smarter business models are reversing outflows in the fund of hedge funds industry. Emma Cusworth looks at the trends behind the figures

  • Features

    What price opportunity?

    July 2014 (Magazine)

    An overhaul of the Norwegian oil fund’s active management approach should free it from most of its current investment restrictions, according to a report co-authored by the former chief executive of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), David Denison.

  • Features

    Inflection point of emerging markets

    July 2014 (Magazine)

    In this article, the first in a series delving into a new study, Nick Lyster and Amin Rajan ask whether emerging markets are becoming yesterday’s story or are merely rebooting their growth engines before the next leap

  • Features

    Financing the real economy

    July 2014 (Magazine)

    The credit funds industry is evolving fast to meet the needs of the world’s SMEs. Claudio Bocci and Gianmatteo Guidetti provide a survey of the products on offer

  • Features

    Time to come together

    July 2014 (Magazine)

    M&A activity is expected to increase as the global economy recovers. Gail Moss looks at the implications for pension funds that sponsors and trustees should consider

  • Features

    Time for a change

    July 2014 (Magazine)

    Earlier this year, the investment team had a briefing from Rolf, the long-standing chairman of trustees of the Wasserdicht Pension Funds here in the Netherlands. Things are changing, at least in terms of our internal governance, and Rolf came along to tell us about it.

  • Features

    Burmese days

    July 2014 (Magazine)

    Rachel Fixsen finds mixed views about Burma as an investment destination for European pension funds

  • Features

    Bond managers are worryingly sanguine

    July 2014 (Magazine)

    ECB president Mario Draghi unveiled his latest measures to arrest disinflation and rouse dormant corporate lending markets in June. Soon afterwards, big records started tumbling.