All Features articles – Page 99
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Features
Diary of an Investor: Cold weather, great pay
February is not the time to visit Toronto. Stepping outside the airport I am reminded how seriously cold it gets in Canada. Winters are mostly pretty mild in the Netherlands so we don’t get to skate on frozen canals like in the Old Master paintings.
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Features
Focus Group: Shaky confidence returns
Some 43% of those taking part in this month’s Off The Record survey were quite confident that the world economy and financial system are now over the worst.
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Features
Cross-border lessons
The 2010 comedy film Rien à Déclarer focused on the rivalry between a pair of customs officers either side of the pre-Schengen Franco-Belgian frontier.
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Features
Lessons learned from the Henderson debacle
The out-of-court settlement in Janaury between a group of 23 investors and Henderson Global Investors over the management of an ill-fated infrastructure fund is a salutary reminder of the difficulty investors face when trying to claim redress after investments turn sour.
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Features
Regulating Europe
Gail Moss reviews pension regulation and law changes under discussion in seven European countries
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Features
War, what is it good for?
In the UK we’ve had quantitative easing for so long now that one of the bonds that the Bank of England started buying in August 2009 is about to mature. When that happens, on 7 March, the Bank says that it will re-invest the £6.6bn in more bonds. Is that monetary loosening? My brain hurts just thinking about it.
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Features
Read the small print
The lawsuits now being filed against asset managers for various transgressions in the wake of the financial crisis have been a long time in coming, but it would seem things are in full swing now.
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Features
Yielding results
Ultra-low bond yields and high dividend yields suggest low-risk investors should consider equity income funds. Joseph Mariathasan looks at the options
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Features
AIFMD: the rush to regulate
With its mid-year implementation deadline looming, Giuseppe Rumi and Giorgio Tosetti update us on the state of play for the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive
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Features
Don’t hope for a Basel III scenario for IORP II
After the Basel Committee unveiled a softer version of the Basel III measures for banking institutions in January, the European pensions industry saw the watered-down legislation as a glimmer of hope. Many crossed their fingers that Brussels would take a similar approach to regulatory frameworks currently being developed for insurance ...
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Features
Ireland’s challenge
Ireland’s presidency of the European Council is an opportunity for the country to showcase the progress it has made in repairing its finances and its economy since the bailout at the end of 2010.
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Features
Pensions Accounting: IAS19 in 2013
The priorities facing defined-benefit plan sponsors who report under IAS19 during 2013 split neatly between short-term volatility concerns and the longer-term challenge of implementing IASB’s recent revisions to the standard, say two leading consultants who spoke to IPE about their priorities for 2013.
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Features
Risk ahead!
“When we understand that slide, we’ll have won the war.” General Stanley McChrystal is supposed to have said this in 2010 when commenting on a PowerPoint slide outlining the risks of the US army’s engagement in Afghanistan.
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Features
Sweden’s buffer funds come out swinging
Future-proofing the Swedish pension system is a key item on the political agenda, following the conclusion of a review of the AP buffer funds commissioned by the department for finance and one by parliament.
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Features
Focus Group: Political considerations
Two-thirds of respondents to this month’s Off The Record survey have, over the past five years, taken action in their investments to try to adapt to a preponderance of political risk in financial markets.
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Features
Contagious junk?
Speculation that European downgrades could squeeze EM corporate bond issuers is overblown, finds Martin Steward
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FeaturesThe correlation myth
Patrick Burke d’Orey argues that factor analysis shows that correlations are not at all-time highs – and that even in 2008 there was wide dispersion in pair-wise factor correlations
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Features
Lies, damned lies and valuations
The Barclays UK Government Inflation-Linked Bond index experienced a 13 standard-deviation event on 10 January.
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Features
Diary of an Investor: Early retirement? No thanks!
One day during our Christmas break, my wife was horrified to read in the daily paper that retirement ages are going up. Jeanette is a French national, even though she has lived most of her life outside of France. ‘There won’t be enough jobs for the young people and the elderly will be forced to work until they drop,’ she said.
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Features
Which way to go?
Nina Röhrbein spoke with Eddie Dahlberg, who is responsible for Volvo’s pledge to provide pensions
