All IPE articles in July 2001 (Magazine)
View all stories from this issue.
-
Features
0 dawn or not?
Global financial markets are at a critical juncture. After having partially recovered from the sharp decline in the first quarter of this year, stock markets are showing renewed signs of weakness. Whether the second quarter rebound was a false dawn or only the first leg of a more fundamental and ...
-
Features
Consulting actuaries: what kind of network?
Actuarial sciences and mathematics know no border and are naturally global. Accordingly, the progress of European regulation and of international accounting principles tends to reduce the still prominent role of local rules. A large part of the market for actuarial consultancy depends on big international companies. Therefore one possible answer ...
-
Special Report
SRI: not high on agenda
Rather like the road to hell, the road to outperformance appears to be paved with good intentions. If the experience of socially responsible investment (SRI) in the UK is anything to go by, though, then those intentions appear somewhat half-hearted. SRI in its purest form was the exclusion of offensive ...
-
Features
Euro assets under cloud
Inflationary pressures, stagnant interest rates and an ever weakening euro are keeping investors out of Europe, leading to a lack of consumer confidence and keeping the markets across Euroland on an ever downward spiral. “Inflation in particular is becoming more of a serious issue,” says Harald Sporleder, a European fund ...
-
Features
S&P futures span Atlantic
Standard & Poor’s, in conjunction with two derivatives exchanges, announced the launch of futures and options on the S&P Europe 350 index and on three of its industry sectors. The three sectors are the financial, information technology and telecom services. Spanish futures and options exchange MEFF and the Chicago Mercantile ...
-
Features
Avoid the real high risk zone
Benchmark. The very word sounds solid and reliable. Obsessive attention to tracking error, though, perpetuated by the more emotive term ‘benchmark risk’, leaves the underlying structure unscrutinised. So while there is a belief that a small tracking error provides safety, little thought is given to the risk associated with the ...
-
Features
London 'back on front foot'
The London Stock Exchange, often seen to follow rather than lead, took rivals by surprise in May with the announcement of plans for its own listing, alongside the first signs of a real ‘European strategy’. Commenting on the announcement of the intention to list, Don Cruickshank, chairman of the exchange, ...
-
Features
Complexity may hold back new plans' growth
The pension reform known as the ‘Riester package’ will be implemented with amendments to some 19 laws, and by introducing one new law for the certification of pension products for the third pillar. Most important is the introduction of a system of tax allowances and direct subsidies, which will be ...
-
Features
Driven by 'Best Value'
Since Best Value came into force last year, UK local authorities (LAs) have been required to provide quality of services at the right price in all areas related to administration, functioning and investment strategies by putting into place clear standards of cost and quality, using the most efficient and effective ...
