Latest analysis – Page 45
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Features
Peak big three
Journalists are used to receiving an email shortly after an interview in which the interviewee – or his PR reps – entreats them to tone down strongly-worded comments.
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Features
In search of a square circle
The Dutch are undertaking a major overhaul of their pensions system. ‘Again?’ you might ask. After all, the Dutch have been tinkering with their system for years, drafting and rejecting one daring redesign after another, while engaging in bickering over the best way to modernise and ‘future-proof’ their slightly outdated, second pillar.
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Features
From our perspective: Pensions and the black box
When the UK, Dutch and Swedish pensions ministers met in January, an odds-on bet is that they discussed their respective pension reforms. The proposed overhaul in the Netherlands involves the likely move away from the intergenerational ‘black box’ of an overly complex pension system. Conversely, the UK is trying to bring back a more palatable form of risk sharing with its plans for collective defined contribution (CDC) schemes, which are to be introduced in legislation currently before Parliament.
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Features
Analysis - Regulation: Swiss funds grapple with currency turmoil
It came as a complete surprise to all – 15 January 2015 will be burned into the memories of Swiss Pensionskassen for a long time. It was the day the Swiss National Bank (SNB) decided to cut the peg of the increasingly stronger Swiss franc to the ever-weakening euro.
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Features
Analysis - 2014 Returns: More luck than skill?
The past year will be remembered as one where economic performance diverged among the world’s key markets, with the US and the UK beginning to stabilise, and China and the euro-zone presenting growing cause for concern.
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from Brussels: Bumpy road ahead
As far as investment is concerned, the EU faces a turbulent 2015. The efforts of Jean-Claude Juncker are central to arresting the EU economy from its zombie state.
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from the US: Funding under pressure
Wall Street posted record highs in 2014 but this was not enough to compensate for other negative factors affecting US corporate pension plans. Their funding status dropped from 89% at the end of 2013 to 80% by the end of 2014, according to Towers Watson, and the pension deficit increased to $343bn (€303bn), doubling that of 2013. Overall pension plan funding fell by $181bn.
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Features
On the verge of reform?
Is Ireland finally addressing its low pension coverage and demographic issues?
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Features
From our perspective: What do you need to shout about?
A recent trend in European occupational pensions has been towards increased transparency on costs – for instance, in the Netherlands and Switzerland. So for numerous European pension funds, measuring and presenting asset management cost data has become standard, even if the task seemed daunting for some at the outset. In Switzerland, managers unable to provide a total expense ratio are named in a separate ‘blacklist’ on the annual report
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Features
Hedge funds: PFZW decision highlights divergent thinking
When Europe’s second-largest pension fund drops hedge funds and announces its new investment strategy will place greater emphasis on intelligibility, the industry takes note.
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Features
Inflation Measures: Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose
In the UK, 2015 started with a sense of déjà vu, as statisticians re-opened the debate on the merits of differing inflation measures.
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Features
Holistic Balance Sheet: Damned if you do, damned if you don’t
The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) is often seen as the bogeyman of the industry, and many criticise even the smallest point put forward by the team surrounding chairman Gabriel Bernardino in Frankfurt.
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Features
Pensions Accounting: A busy year scheduled
Another year, another 12 months of pensions accounting change and uncertainty. By any guess, 2015 promises to be a busy year for both defined benefit (DB) and defined contribution (DC) pension plan sponsors.
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from Brussels: Pensions in their sights
EU big shots working on how to release capital flows from funds into SMEs under the new Capital Market Union (CMU) programme should look at an existing scheme with similar aims.
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from the US: A model for future cuts?
The pension industry is concerned with the consequences of a bipartisan amendment to the $1.1trn (€924 bn) ominbus spending bill that Congress approved in December. This cuts benefits for multi-employer plan members and experts are now debating whether it is a model for further cuts across the industry.
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Features
A divergent opinion
If there is one big idea running markets around the world at the moment, it’s the ‘great policy divergence’. I’ve articulated the idea more than once: just last month I suggested it would take a “brave, brave soul to bet against the dollar”.
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Features
Markets and pensions
Do financial markets reward countries that have a fully funded and mandatory second-pillar pension system? It is hard to say. But it’s clear they do not penalise countries that dismantle theirs.
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Features
Looking ahead: questions for 2015
Micro-prudential or macro-prudential? What do you mean by long term? Is less sometimes more? Is less sometimes more?
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from the US: Data managers
Technological tools, data management, attention to governance and transparency are the most important issues for pension fund CIOs right now.
