All IPE articles in July 2011 (Magazine) – Page 2

  • Opinion Pieces

    MiFID II

    July 2011 (Magazine)

    The European Commission is preparing its revision of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID I) that provides harmonised regulation for investment services. MiFID II is due to be published in September 2011, slightly delayed from the earlier deadline of July.

  • Features

    MNOPF to reshape UK fiduciary landscape?

    July 2011 (Magazine)

    When the Merchant Navy Officers’ Pension Fund (MNOPF) announced it was appointing Towers Watson as delegated CIO, the UK pension industry took notice. While the £3.3bn (€3.7bn) scheme may not be big compared with some of the Dutch pension giants, it is influential in the UK, especially with its appointment establishing Towers in UK fiduciary management.

  • Features

    Event horizons

    July 2011 (Magazine)

    Martin Steward finds an unusual corporate event cycle teeing up opportunities for event-driven hedge funds – but not necessarily classic merger arbitrage or distressed debt

  • Nordic investors warm to EMD
    Features

    Nordic investors warm to EMD

    July 2011 (Magazine)

    Investors in Nordic countries show rising interest in emerging market debt as a way to take part in the emerging market story. Jan Willers reports on findings of a recent survey

  • Features

    Systemic reforms just a utopian dream

    July 2011 (Magazine)

    Experts and analysts believe the idea of a systemic reform of France’s pension industry faces major hurdles and that it is unlikely to be implemented due to funding and political wrangling. They also say that building up a new pension regime from scratch would be the best way to simplify the French system and avoid increasing the deficit.

  • Features

    Easier said than done

    July 2011 (Magazine)

    Often the solution to a problem is as complex as the problem itself. And a lot of things are easier said than done.

  • Features

    Opening up custody

    July 2011 (Magazine)

    Planned merger of Russia’s rival exchanges could clear the way for securities lending, writes Iain Morse

  • Features

    Pressure to scale up to hold down costs

    July 2011 (Magazine)

    Gail Moss looks at how multinational companies are grappling with pension scheme underfunding in the face of rising longevity pension scheme underfunding in the face of rising longevity

  • Features

    Convergence over harmonisation

    July 2011 (Magazine)

    Niels Kortleve, Barthold Kuipers and Wilfried Mulder offer reasons why the European Commission should focus on convergence of EU pension regulation rather than harmonisation

  • Opinion Pieces

    Lee Hollingworth - Head of Defined Contribution at Hymans Robertson

    July 2011 (Magazine)

    “In our view, the open market option should be the default for all schemes”

  • Special Report

    The future of cleantech

    July 2011 (Magazine)

    Investors in the cleantech industry are not just funding the development of environmentally conscious business, argues Paul Corren. While the technology is developed to do that, it is also focused on reducing costs and improving efficiency

  • Features

    Pointless chatter

    July 2011 (Magazine)

    Without any irony, the IASB is about to give you the opportunity to take part in a consultation process on the future shape of its entire work plan. As a 15 June IASB meeting paper explains: “The consultation process was introduced by the trustees of the IFRS Foundation in 2010 in response to comments received during the constitution review of the IFRS Foundation.” A good time to revisit pension plan measurement? Reality check.

  • Country Report

    Italy: The guard changes at Cometa

    July 2011 (Magazine)

    As Fabio Ortolani steps down from the Cometa pension scheme ahead of August’s management elections, Carlo Svaluto Moreolo offers an appraisal of his term and the issues that the new team will have to focus upon

  • Features

    Diary of an Investor: Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose

    July 2011 (Magazine)

    We Dutch value consensus – perhaps we even need it in the way we need our dikes and polders to manage our low-lying lands.

  • Features

    Bernardino: Solvency II not a simple exercise

    July 2011 (Magazine)

    With the introduction of Solvency II less than a year and a half away, the pensions industry is still unclear what kind of regime it will face and how aspects of the Directive, drafted for insurance companies, may be applied to diverse European pensions.

  • Features

    Should fiduciaries manage assets?

    July 2011 (Magazine)

    Anton Van Nunen writes on the changing role of fiduciary managers. Should they manage pension assets themselves despite the potential conflict of interest?

  • Interviews

    How do you approach portfolio construction?

    July 2011 (Magazine)

    Risk, regulation and asset allocation

  • Asset Class Reports

    Structured Credit: Alphabet soup: a second helping

    July 2011 (Magazine)

    Joseph Mariathasan takes a look at the structured credit and loans markets and finds a surprising abundance of reasons to tuck back into the alphabet soup, even after significant spread-tightening

  • Features

    AIMA pushes for increased alignment

    July 2011 (Magazine)

    Eat your own cooking – that is the advice of CalPERS’s Kurt Silberstein, who recommends hedge fund managers add a little more of themselves to the pot if they want to entice pension funds to the table. In common parlance, hedge funds must do more to ‘align interests’ with investors.

  • Features

    Not everyone loves the Pensions Agreement

    July 2011 (Magazine)

    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.