Latest analysis – Page 52
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Features
Denmark: not one to rest on its laurels
The Danish pension system is the envy of many developed countries. Ranked as the world’s best by Melbourne Mercer, the system also won plaudits from the OECD in September for being home to the best-performing pension funds. But far from resting on their laurels, politicians, regulators and the funds are constantly trying to improve.
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Features
Falling Irish yields scupper pension relief
Ahead of Ireland’s successful, if timid, re-entry into the bond market in July, some within the pensions industry expressed concerns that the government was seeking to ‘incentivise’ investment in Irish debt through the new funding regime for defined benefit schemes.
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Features
LGPS could boost infrastructure by up to 15%
UK local authority funds could soon see investment regulations loosened, allowing a further £20bn (€25bn) in assets to be allocated to infrastructure, according to the department for communities and local government (DCLG).
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Features
Institutions suited to bridge the lending gap
Infrastructure as an asset class is at a crossroads. While European banks traditionally provided debt to infrastructure projects pre-2008, the financial crisis and new regulation requiring banks to hold larger amounts of capital have changed the rules.
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Opinion Pieces
Long Term Matters: A preventable surprise
The world has been hit recently by a tsunami of corporate disaster. Then came the LIBOR scandal.
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Features
Adapt now or fall by the wayside
Aymeric Poizot argues that to stay competitive, asset managers must act swiftly to re-shape their activities to deal with new challenges being thrown up by rapidly changing market conditions
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from Brussels: Deaf ears for EC claims
Summer 2013 might be some way off but it is when the European Commission intends to publish its proposals for IORP II. And signs from the Commission are that the usual procrastination is no longer intended.
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from the US: Pension uncertainties
Social Security reform was notably absent from the 2012 US presidential campaign.
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Features
New twist in Dutch pension reform
On 24 September, the long, drawn-out process of Dutch pension reform took a new turn when state secretary for social affairs and labour Paul de Krom unveiled the so-called ‘September package’, a comprehensive set of new rules for pension funds. The package seeks to flesh out labour minister Henk Kamp’s ...
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Opinion Pieces
Joseph Mariathasan: The UK should set up a sovereign wealth fund
Britain faces the prospect of an ageing population with a consequent rise in its dependency ratio, and an economy in decline relative to the rest of the world.
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Features
Factoring ESG issues
Respondents to this month’s Off The Record survey highlighted various issues they felt to be their main responsibility as a fiduciary. A UK fund stated: “The fiduciary duty of a pension fund is to pay the pension promise to its members. Where ESG issues have the potential to impact the ...
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Features
Fighting talk
Pension funds see remuneration from two different but uniquely intertwined perspectives. As institutional investors, they are under increasing pressure to hold companies, including banks, to account over executive pay.
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Features
Money doesn’t grow on trees
Every child has heard similar words. You want that delicious-looking cake? A new toy? “Money doesn’t grow on trees!”
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Features
Voluntary reform?
Last month the Dutch caretaker government introduced a new set of rules for pension funds designed to avert dramatic benefit cuts and contribution hikes. The so-called ‘September package’ represents a typical Dutch compromise – it offers something for everyone, everything for no-one, and nothing for free.
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Features
In the laboratory
It’s a good rule in life to learn from the mistakes of others if you can. So what could the board of a brand new pension fund learn from others to make sure its internal design and external relationships are as robust as possible?
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Features
Taking the sting out of the tendering process
Tendering for a new investment consultant – or indeed, tendering to fill any soon-to-be-vacant position – using the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) can cause the more than 100 local authority pension funds in the UK a lot of pain, according to Nicola Mark, head of the £2bn (€2.4bn) Norfolk Pension Fund.
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Features
Keeping pace with the paper chase
Investors and market players would do well to do one thing when new financial reforms come into force – adapt quickly. A case in point is the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR) currently being drafted in Brussels.
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Features
Timelines: Forewarned is forearmed
On 2 October, when the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) submitted its technical standards to the European Commission on the conduct of the quantitative exercise for the revised IORP Directive, a number of concerns were raised within the pensions industry.
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Opinion Pieces
Can PE save the world?
When private equity players come together to discuss how to be more responsible, that is noteworthy.
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Features
Trusted adviser 2.0
In this third and final article in the current series, Nicholas Lyster and Amin Rajan conclude that, as markets have become disconnected from fundamental value drivers, the role of trusted adviser is gaining traction.
