All articles by IPE staff – Page 14
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Features
Volatility hits some more than others
Most European pension funds put on a brave face during the wild stock market swings at the end of last month, but some handled the pressure better than others. The larger Dutch funds initially adopted a rather phlegmatic attitude as the panic first set in, emphasising the long-term nature of ...
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Features
From our perspective: All-terrain vehicles
As one commentator points out in this issue, Dutch pension funds were regarded as high performance cars in the early 1990s. High equity allocations and a cash-flow positive status meant many enjoyed years of good returns in the 1980s and 90s, riding the heights of the equity bull market and barely scathed by the 1987 crash. Perceived as ‘rich’, by politicians, they could be taxed and any remaining surplus distributed to employers.
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Features
Not everyone loves the Pensions Agreement
After much wrangling, heel-dragging and finger-pointing, the Dutch government and social partners have hammered out a Pensions Agreement. In mid-June, the social partners and the cabinet unveiled an agreement that aims to increase the official retirement age for the first pillar (AOW) to 66 in 2020 and to 67 in 2025. First pillar benefits will be raised an extra 0.6% annually, amounting to indexation in line with real earned wages, a major demand of umbrella union FNV. Early retirement will remain an option, but against a loss of 6.5% of the AOW for each year.
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Country Report
Switzerland: Industry views
As part of the structural reform of the second pillar, Swiss regulations BVV1 regarding the supervision of occupational pensions and BVV2 concerning occupational pensions, disability and bereavement provision – have been amended. A new regulation, ASV, is also set to take effect from January 2012. As part of the legislative ...
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Special Report
Top 400: Leading soundbites
IPE questioned CEOs, CIOs and other senior figures in investment management
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Features
From our perspective: Get reforming
In Greek mythology, Sisyphus was compelled to roll a boulder up a hill, continually, only to watch it roll down again and to repeat the procedure again and again.
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Features
From our perspective: Meet the governance police
Staffing a company board is many times more an art than it is a science. Appointments largely seek to balance sector specialisation with wider business experience, length and breadth of experience, and softer skills such as communication and advocacy. Other aspects, such as gender diversity, are of growing importance, as seen in the UK’s 30% Club and in Scandinavian countries that have minimum appointment figures for women.
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Features
From our perspective: What’s your co-operation plan?
As long-term expected portfolio returns settle at modest annual rates of well under 10%, basis points really do count as the pension fund community – and its sponsoring stakeholders – look to deliver pensions at a reasonable cost to all concerned.
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Features
Germany’s fiduciary confusion
The simmering debate over institutional interest in fiduciary management in Germany – or rather the lack of it – has boiled over in recent weeks, with an array of consultants and asset managers weighing in on costs, transparency, conflicts of interest and even the very meaning of the term.
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NewsMandate roundup: IPE Quest, London Borough of Sutton
A European pension fund is looking for a passive currency hedge to euro for a €2bn passive portfolio.
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NewsFTK: Careful what you wish for
Is the Netherlands financial assessment framework the desirable replacement for Solvency II?
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Special Report
Europe's Pension Consultants: Talking heads
We put questions to nine leading European pension consultants
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Features
From Our Perspective: Careful what you wish for
At the end of January, Michel Barnier, the European commissioner for the internal market, told an audience of Dutch pension funds definitively that the Commission will not apply Solvency II rules to pension funds.
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Features
TV strikes again
Zembla, a current affairs TV programme in the Netherlands, lit a firestorm in the pensions industry last month after it argued that Dutch pension funds have underperformed consistently over the past two decades, missing out on more than €145bn in unrealised returns. The programme claimed that funds had generally invested too much in risky assets and that trustees lacked the necessary expertise to look after Dutch workers’ pension savings. It even went so far as to accuse the industry of “bad management”.
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NewsTowers Watson unveils Asset-Liability Tracker
Tool helps pension funds make faster decisions about liability-driven investment strategies.
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NewsReal estate sluggish compared with other asset classes – IPE
GLOBAL – The assets of the top 100 real estate investment managers fell by 4.1% – or some €44bn – to just over €1trn as at 31 December 2009 compared with a year earlier, according to the latest IP Real Estate investment managers survey, which will appear in the next ...
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Country Report
The Nordic Region: Norway A concentrated equity market
Norway’s stock exchange, Oslo Børs, comprises of 203 issuers, of which 36 are foreign companies. The market-cap totals almost NOK1.5trn (€186bn) and the exchange saw six new listings in 2010.
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Country Report
The Nordic Region: Denmark’s planned venture capital fund
When key parties from the Danish pensions industry emerged from their meeting with the economics and business affairs minister Brian Mikkelsen back in August 2010, they declared themselves optimistic that somehow they would work together to put together DKK5bn (€670m) of funding to help small and medium-sized enterprises in their ...
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Features
Case study of a US asset manager
“Asset management is a craft industry and may always remain so. Its food chain is changing but predictions about consolidation are too simplistic. In manufacturing, consolidation is occurring in ownership, not activities: as size has proved an enemy of alpha, the craft end is being fragmented to create independent and ...
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NewsVote now for Nominated ESG Leaders Awards
IPE – Now is your chance to vote in this year's IPE-TBLI ESG Leaders Awards, being held in London on 11 November.
