Latest analysis – Page 38
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Features
Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index: The underestimated impact of ageing
“There is no perfect pension system that can be applied universally,” but the truth of the matter is, some do better than others. In the eighth edition of the Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index (MMGPI), Denmark, the Netherlands and Australia retained the top spots.
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Features
Pension Fund Performance: Third-quarter results: equities lead the way
Rebounding equity markets over the third quarter bolstered year-to-date (YTD) returns at many European pension funds, particularly in the Nordic region.
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Features
Conference Report: Defined benefit diagnosed – next, remedies
The future for UK defined benefit (DB) pension schemes, new regulation for master trusts, a visit from the new pensions minister – all this and more was on the agenda of the national pensions association’s annual conference in late October.
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Features
Pensions Accounting: Prisoners of time
The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) has concluded its latest agenda consultation exercise and added a research project to address what it calls “Pension Benefits that Depend on an Asset”. Despite the impressive title, the research is unlikely to cause a flurry of activity on pensions.
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Features
Interview: Amy Kessler, Prudential Retirement
A novel by a Nobel prizewinner from Portugal is premised on what is perhaps the ultimate nightmare for the global pensions industry. José Saramago’s Intermitências da Morte is based in an unnamed country where, on 1 January, people mysteriously stop dying
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Features
ATP: Steady as she goes for ATP
The announcement of Christian Hyldahl as ATP’s new chief signals a steady-as-she-goes approach in turbulent financial times, at the same time as a strong focus on operational efficiency for the giant Danish labour market pension fund.
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Features
Pension Investing: Is the tide of globalisation turning?
In the first of a series of articles, Pascal Blanqué and Amin Rajan argue that Britain’s vote to exit the EU will hit asset valuations, mainly via political contagion rather than corporate profits
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Features
Women in Asset Management: Redressing the balance
Women remain under-represented in asset management despite substantial success in improving their representation in other professions. Brendan Maton examines attempts to redress the balance
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FeaturesRegulatory monoculture and systemic risk
What is the connection between tropical fruit and systemic risk? In 1990, when East German citizens demonstrated for freedom and democracy, the banana became a potent symbol of the basic level of prosperity to which they aspired
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Features
UK's LPGS: Mixed reviews for final regulations
Guidance on new investment regulations for UK local government pension schemes (LPGS) has been welcomed for changing the course of asset pooling “for the better”
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Features
Regulation: Pension funds join fray on systemic risk
The consultation by the Financial Stability Board (FSB) on its proposals to address structural vulnerabilities for asset management activities has set off a skirmish between those institutions wanting mandatory stress-tests to include pension and sovereign wealth funds (SWFs), and those that do not.
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from the US: Endowment rethink
Should other university endowments follow the Yale model or is it time to rethink how they invest and take a simpler approach, such as an indexed 60/40 portfolio? That is the big question for NP ‘Narv’ Narvekar, who becomes the CEO of Harvard Management Company (HMC) in December.
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from Brussels: Pan-EU private schemes for 2017?
Legislation proposing pan-EU personal pension products (PEPPs) could be tabled in 2017, according to the European Commission
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Features
Research: Retirement Income - How much is enough?
Bonnie-Jeanne MacDonald outlines a new approach to the calculation of retirement income adequacy
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FeaturesFrom Our Perspective: How transparent?
Gerard van Olphen, CEO of APG, contends that the Dutch pension sector is in denial about the need for transparency. The same accusation could be levelled against pension funds in other places.
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Features
Returns: Bonds boost interim results
Returns in the low single-digits were common across the northern European pensions landscape in the first half of 2016, as bonds rallied while equities slumped.
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Features
Pensions Accounting: Numerology signals
Seventy. Zero. Minus-80. We are probably going to be seeing and hearing a lot about those numbers in the coming weeks. Just as 666 is said to represent The Beast, 70, zero and minus-80 look set to epitomise monster pension deficits and the dawning chasm between IAS 19 scheme deficits and the reality of stewarding a pension scheme.
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Features
Value Chain: A price worth paying
A better investment value chain would involve lower short-term profitability for providers in return for greater long-term sustainability of relationships, according to Tim Hodgson
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Features
Danish Reform: The 2025 Plan
The government of Denmark – a country ranked, according to the Melbourne Mercer Global Pensions index, as having the best pension system in the world – is planning to push funded pensions coverage into new territory.
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from the US: Pension equities ebb
The defined benefit (DB) pension funds of the companies in the S&P 500 index are in deficit. At December 2015, these were $376.6bn (€337bn) underfunded, according to Citigroup’s chief US equity strategist Tobias Levkovich.
