Latest from IPE Magazine – Page 758
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Features
Cash positions
The investment in commodities using derivatives such as total return swaps and futures means the fund has to keep a cash position in order to prevent leverage. This cash position has to be equal in size to the total commodities exposure of the derivatives. On a monthly basis PGGM’s positions ...
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Features
The passive approach to bonds
In the mid-1990s, we were approached by a client and asked if our long experience of running passive global equity accounts could be applied to a fixed income portfolio. Underperformance by many active global and US bond managers in standard competitive universes was well documented and the prospect of paying ...
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Features
Myners says trading costs should be in fees
One of the most radical recommendations in the report by Gartmore chairman Paul Myners into the UK institutional investment industry is the proposal that fund managers should include trading commissions in their fees rather than passing the cost directly on to the pension fund, as is present practice. According to ...
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Features
Pictet does it once again
For great service from your global custodian, ignore the big outfits and instead opt for smaller providers- that is according to a survey by R&M Consulting, a UK-based market research company. Swiss private bank Pictet & Cie came out on top as the best service provider beating off competition from ...
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Features
Waiting for members to catch up
By definition, IT jargon is at best confusing, at worst incomprehensible. While it’s in vogue to talk of going online and of e-enabling, what does it mean when a pension fund adds an online, interactive front end? And once that front end is enabled and online, what does it mean ...
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Features
Custody and rule of 'more sooner'
Any attempt to map the technological topography of the custody business five or even three years down the line is a fraught enterprise. Certainly, back in 1996, few custodians could anticipate the profound transformation wrought upon the commercial landscape as the internet came of age in the late 1990s, a ...
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Features
Surviving the e-revolution
Cross-border markets are nothing new. What has changed, however, is the technological infrastructure that underpins the activities of market participants throughout the globe. Whilst there are still relatively large swathes of the international financial markets that rely on and enjoy a physical market, participants in almost every area of the ...
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Features
A seismic shift in FX trading
Foreign exchange markets, like many others, are undergoing a profound change. We believe the impact of the internet and its associated technology is causing a seismic shift that will transform the way currencies are transacted. It will also change the relationship between clients and banks. Banks that can fully utilise ...
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Features
Fighting the Fed
The wisdom on Wall Street is “Don’t fight the Fed”.Late in January the CEO of Cisco Systems announced that revenue growth had slowed abruptly in the New Year and that the next two quarters could be a rough ride. Press coverage was extensive on the Monday– but Cisco’s share price ...
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Features
In search of the ultimate solution
The search for quality administrative solutions (systems and providers) continues across Europe. Whether it is for domestic and offshore mutual fund transfer agency services, or for the growing need to provide defined contribution recordkeeping capabilities, the fact is that there are few options. Moreover, what makes the issue even more ...
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Features
Looking after the planet - or number one?
In this month’s Off The Record we asked how far pension funds should be involved with the companies in which they invest. This is a particularly pertinent issue in light of recent high-profile media cases on corporate ethical policies, directors’ pay and the involvement of pension funds in extracting shareholder ...
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Features
Californian colossus
How much can politics affect the investment decisions of a huge US pension fund in the public sector? A lot, judging by the latest example of the tensions between the board and the staff who manage Calpers, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, the nation’s largest public pension fund. Following ...
