Investor Strategy – Page 124
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News
BPK under pressure to make DC switch
SWITZERLAND – The public pension fund of the Swiss canton of the capital city Bern, Bernische Pensionskasse (BPK), is under pressure from member companies to speed up its move away from a defined benefit (DB) scheme to a defined contribution (DC) arrangement.
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BVV to diversify through commodities
GERMANY – The €20.9bn BVV Pensionskasse for German banks saw returns from its bond-heavy portfolio drop last year and is now seeking to increase its diversification by investing in commodities.
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NewsKLM scheme establishes SRI pool and de-risks
NETHERLANDS – The €1.4bn KLM pension fund for cabin staff has set up a ‘green pool’ within its investment portfolio as it develops its socially responsible investment programme (SRI).
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Most Swiss trustees held their nerve during the crisis
SWITZERLAND - Close to 90% of Swiss pension funds reviewed their asset allocation following the financial crisis, but only 67% made any subsequent changes, according to a trustee survey conducted at the Fachmesse zweite Saüle conference this week.
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GE Pension Trust’s active commodities strategy unlocked
GLOBAL - An actively managed commodities strategy run for the General Electric Pension Trust in the US has been made available to other institutional investors.
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Towers Watson encourages diversification into reinsurance
GLOBAL – Institutional investors need to further diversify their assets into areas such as reinsurance strategies by using catastrophe bonds and other insurance linked securities, according to Towers Watson.
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German pension funds need more credit research - WPV
GERMANY – The €1.4bn German Versorgungswerk for chartered accountants WPV plans to continue to decrease its exposure bank-related fixed income investments, but will have to seek external advice to do so.
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Third of EU workers would retire early for less
EUROPE – A third of workers in Europe would rather retire early and receive less income than continue working past the existing national retirement age, according to research by Aon Consulting.
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German funds look to emerging market debt – HSBC
GERMANY – German pension funds' appetite for fixed income exposure will push them towards investing in emerging market debt, according to HSBC.
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BlackRock figures highlight move to passive strategies
GLOBAL – BlackRock has reported net outflows by institutional investors of $39.6bn (€29.9bn) and inflows of $8.9bn, as the global equity rally and tightening credit spreads have caused investors to reconsider investment strategies and shift from active to passive investments.
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News
Trustee firm enters fiduciary management with outsourcing model
UK – Atkin Trustees, a UK-based independent trustee firm, is moving into the area of fiduciary management for small pension schemes with the launch of its Scheme Management Outsourcing (SMO) offering.
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News
USS buys stake in Neuberger Berman Secondaries Fund
UK – The Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) has expanded its private equity investment programme by acquiring a $135m (€101m) interest in the Neuberger Berman Secondary Opportunities Fund II from the Lehman Brothers Estate.
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German tax consultants fund to diversify equities and real estate
GERMANY – The €520m pension fund for tax consultants in the German province of Northrhine-Westphalia (NRW) is seeking to diversify its investments through specialist equity and Asian real estate mandates.
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IMF predicts Russian pension fund growth
RUSSIA – The International Monetary Fund has stated expects private pension funds “to grow rapidly” in Russia as pension benefits increasingly become part of salary packages.
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News
Informed pension members are willing to take more risk – study
NETHERLANDS - Dutch employees are more willing to take investment risks with their pension if they have a better insight into the effect their choice will have on their future pension, suggests a study commissioned by the Association of Industry-wide Pensions Funds (VB).
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News
VB questions real cover ratio and ‘soft’ pension rights
NETHERLANDS - The Association of Industry-wide Pension Funds (VB) has expressed serious doubts about the introduction of more conditional rights for pensions members and questioned the use of the real cover ratio as a benchmark for a scheme’s health.
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NewsGerman province mulls an end to PAYG pensions for ministers
GERMANY – Ministers in the north German province of Schleswig-Holstein might in future have to take care of their own pensions if the Green party succeeds.
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News
Younger Swedes face lower pensions income
SWEDEN - Swedes born in the 1980s and 1990s can still expect receive a total pension income worth 60-65% of their final salary, yet this is substantially lower than those born in the 1930s and 1940s, according to a survey by pension provider Folksam.
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News
DC governance needs to develop globally - State Street
GLOBAL – State Street has claimed defined contribution (DC) regulations and fiduciary oversight need to develop in a global rather than national context as the shift from defined benefit (DB) to DC continues.
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News'Packaged passive' investment could address DC risk - study
EUROPE – Members of defined contribution pension schemes might in future be more confident about their investments if strategies were based more around “packaged passive funds”, suggest panelists contributing to a DC study.
