Latest from IPE Magazine – Page 560
-
Features
Goodbye to the simple life
Average returns for Belgian pension funds in 2004 were not particularly good, according to Koen de Ryck, chairman and managing director at Pragma Consulting. According to data from the Belgian Association of Pensions Institutions (BVPI) returns averaged 8.93%. The major issue within the pensions industry in Belgium last year was ...
-
Features
Strong market moves east
Central and eastern European pension funds continued to climb up the Top 1000 ranks, with asset growth last year outstripping that of membership because of the exceptionally strong performance of the local capital markets. Share prices rocketed ahead of EU accession in May 2004, while bond markets posted some of ...
-
Features
Blue skies with hint of cloud
Skies over the Danish pension landscape have remained remarkably blue during 2005, with equities lifting fund performance. The only clouds on the horizon are interest rates, which remain worryingly low. Leif Hasager, chief investment officer of the BankPension, which covers around 11,000 employees for companies in the Danish financial sector, ...
-
Features
Move towards equities
Finnish pension funds have posted above target level real returns of more than 7% for the last couple of years, according to Matti Leppälä, director responsible for international and legal affairs for the Finnish Pensions Alliance (TELA). But the industry is concerned that regulations put unnecessary limits on investments which ...
-
Features
Looking for an alternative
The introduction of legislative and regulatory changes means the pensions sector is going through a period of flux. This has given rise to some uncertainty. “But what we know is that the trend towards the strengthening of old-age financial provision is continuing” in the wake of the 2002 Riester reforms, ...
-
Features
A bruising time for pensions
The Irish pension scene is certainly feeling somewhat bruised if not battered, as many of its proud aspirations are coming apart. Schemes have come under increasing challenges from funding and international accounting standards. “These have been compounded by the increase in liabilities caused not by any change in the numbers ...
-
Features
Last details to be finalised
The pension reform that was the focus of attention for years is no longer on the pension industry’s agenda, according to Guido Blasco, a consultant at Hewitt in Milan. “The consensus is that the reform works, so the debate is no longer about the reforms themselves but about the proposals ...
-
Features
Testing to destruction
The Dutch keep piling the agony on their pension funds. If there are any nuts to be cracked, the regulators and the different commissions come in swinging their sledgehammers. It is almost as if the system has to be tested to destruction before it can be accepted that it works. ...
-
Features
Changes herald drift to DC
Norway’s expects that its long-awaited pension reform allowing defined contribution will come into effect at the beginning of next year. Among the main provisions is that all employers have to provide some type of pension plan for employees. This is likely to result in the development of defined contribution much ...
-
Features
In the shadow of constraints
Portugal’s private pension system received a blow at the start of this year when the government removed the tax benefits on employee contributions to third pillar arrangements. Ironically, the step was taken by a centre-right government that ideologically favoured private provision. However, it was forced to adopt stringent fiscal measures ...
-
Features
Growing investment universe
The Fonditel pension fund in Spain, the fund of Telefonica de Espana, achieved a return on its investments of 6.39% in 2004. “This was achieved basically through the implementation of an adequate exposure to the different asset classes during the year,” the fund says. Fonditel was overweight in equities at ...
-
Features
Living with uncertainty
The atmosphere surrounding Swedish pension funds has been positive over the past 12 months with good returns, especially from equities, boosting confidence. However, some see the impending implementation of the EU pensions directive as a cloud on the horizon. One fund that sees adjusting to the pensions directive as a ...
-
Features
Cover ratios bite
The challenges facing some of Switzerland’s largest pension funds on the investment front vary greatly given widely differing coverage ratios. The Civil Service Insurance Fund for the Canton of Zurich (BVK) is at one end of the spectrum with a coverage ratio at end-July of 95%. Though up sharply on ...
-
Features
Putting the jigsaw together
Dealing with deficits and regulation – they are the two things uppermost in people’s minds in the UK pension industry today. It’s not so much regulation itself that is the intrinsic problem; it’s more in the implementation and uncertainty surrounding it that causes difficulties. As one consultant puts it, it’s ...
