All IPE articles in July 2013 (Magazine)
View all stories from this issue.
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Features
Accounting: But what does it mean?
The April meeting of the International Accounting Standards Board set the scene for yet another rushed consideration of draft chapters for inclusion in the conceptual framework discussion paper. The document is to be published in July.
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Features
End to the first act
Six years since the idea was first raised, the European Commission has finally drawn a curtain on its proposal to apply rigid risk-based solvency requirements – pillar one of Solvency II – on occupational pension funds in IORP II. At least for now, since Michel Barnier, the commissioner for the single market, has made it clear that this is a postponement, not a policy abandonment.
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Features
Focus Group: Service providers or trusted advisers?
Perhaps it should come as no surprise that all 28 respondents to this month’s Off The Record poll thought the client relations skills of the overall asset management industry were merely good to mediocre – but when it came to the manager they have known best or longest, almost all rated them good to excellent.
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Country Report
Italy: Mangusta Risk advocates pension funds spend more time on passive portfolios
Any adviser, large or small, would have seen an opportunity when the Italian pension market opened up less than 20 years ago, with the establishment of many new medium and large-sized pension schemes.
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Opinion Pieces
Alexander Ineichen, Founder of Ineichen Research and Management
“Confusing uncertainty with volatility or VaR is like mistaking a tiger for a pussycat. It’s irresponsible and dangerous”
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Features
Taking the sugar out of the alphabet soup
Jeroen Dijsselbloem has been taking sweeties away from the finance industry again. The Dutch finance minister and Eurogroup president has told pension funds not to expect the same inflation premium on future PPP projects that they enjoyed on the N33 motorway deal.
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Special Report
Food for thought for animal welfare
The horse-meat scandal has alerted investors to the importance of animal welfare in the supply chain, finds Nina Röhrbein
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Features
Attention moves to portability
Eight years have passed since the European Commission introduced its first proposals on a Pension Portability Directive, and yet, so far, there has been no sign of this coming to fruition. Back in 2005, it introduced a proposal for a directive aiming to improve the portability of supplementary pension rights.
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Country Report
Italy: ENPAM gets back into gear
Embroiled in a scandal in 2011, has ENPAM now turned the corner? Carlo Svaluto Moreolo reports The ENPAM pension fund for medical professionals published its balance sheet in May, reassuring members that the dark days of the past are finally over. In 2012 the fund recorded a €1.3bn budget surplus ...
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Country Report
Italy: Economic reality bites hard
Job losses and a tough economic environment are forcing pension funds Fonchim and Cometa to review and restructure their investment objectives, writes Carlo Svaluto Moreolo In testing times for the Italian job market, two of the country’s largest pension schemes, Fonchim and Cometa, are gradually adjusting their investment strategies to ...
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Features
The case for the investment book of record
It is essential for investment decisions to be based on accurate and complete information, but obtaining that in the form of an investment book of record is easier for some asset managers than others, according to John Mayr
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Features
The solutions business
‘We’re in the solutions business!’ These were the words I was greeted with at the Worldwide Institutional Investing Conference inLondon recently. A fiduciary manager was presenting his vision for pension funds, and all kinds of jargon were thrown out – integral fiduciary management, partial mandate outsourcing, delegated CIOs and segregated diversified growth fund mandates.
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Asset Class Reports
Structured Credit: Wrong to buy?
Europe’s key RMBS markets remain subdued. Lynn Strongin Dodds reports on whether the lack of activity is just about bank stresses – or a more fundamental economic malaise
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Features
Defining the trustee chair
The rise of LDI, market turbulence and regulatory challenges have all helped to change the role of the trustee chair, according to Gail Moss
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Country Report
Italy: The recovery starts at home for Cometa as it seeks to stabilise its membership
At Cometa, the €7.3bn scheme for workers employed by the metal and mechanical engineering industries, the membership issue is more urgent. The scheme has about 427,000 members, less than half the one million potential members in the sector. The figure is unlikely to rise significantly in 2013 because of the condition of the sector, where factories are closing or laying off workers. So the scheme is focusing on keeping its current members.
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Country Report
Italy: Compulsory membership and education are key to improving pension system
Francesco Vallacqua is a research fellow of Center for Applied Research and Finance (CAREFIN) at Bocconi University of Milan. He has held positions as a consultant to governmental institutions and pension schemes, such as at Cometa, the fund for mechanical engineering industry workers, and is currently a board member of Espero, the teaching professionals’ fund.
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Opinion Pieces
Whose risk counts?
Paul Woolley – a successful academic economist, regulator and fund manager – gave sustainability investors a direct challenge at the recent Responsible Investor conference.
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Country Report
Italy: COVIP weathers the storms of Italian politics
Covip annual statement: In 2013 membership of private pension schemes increases, albeit slowly, at 5.3% adding 290,000 more members to the total 5.8m. Funds have grown between 8% and 9% in 2012, compared to 2.9% growth of the trattamento di fine rapporto.
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Features
Directing the directive
Cécile Sourbès asks Matti Leppälä, secretary-general and chief executive of PensionsEurope, to discuss the next steps for the revised IORP Directive
