Latest from IPE Magazine – Page 920
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Features
Swiss make the switch
Switzerland is a large and mature pension market in the sense that Swiss employers have typically provided a substantial pension package to employees (in addition to basic social security coverage.) The special factor about the Swiss implementation of the three-pillar system is that the second pillar is compulsory. This comes ...
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Features
Not as easy as it sounds
For any multinational considering moving to DC in Europe, it is important to understand the environment in each country, as it is most unlikely that sophisticated US 401K-type DC plans will be possible. The European DC market is still developing, in terms of concept, employee acceptance and the tax regime. ...
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Features
UK: on growth track
There is a discernible trend toward DC in the UK, although this may have been exaggerated. The following reasons for this were given by respondents, representing over 40% of UK occupational pensions by value, to the survey conducted by InterSec: increased job mobility; desire for transferability of savings; demand from ...
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Features
TeleDanmark
With assets of around Dkr18bn ($12.1bn), the TeleDanmark pension scheme is a giant that dominates the corporate pension provision landscape in Denmark. The scheme was long established as part of the original state-owned companies brought together in 1990 to form TeleDanmark, prior to its partial privatisation in 1994. The pension ...
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Features
Getting all in one picture
Eastman Kodak could become the first multinational to establish a pan-European system that will allow it to manage its European assets as if they were in one investment pool.By the end of 1998 all assets in Europe will be managed centrally on a long-term eq-uity basis, saving the company an ...
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Features
Inside track
Outsource your investment management is my cry!Let’s start off with something where protagonists fall clearly into one camp or another and for a multinational, in particular, it’s a key issue: How to manage the in-vestments?”I support the view that investment management should be outsourced to the fund management industry (and ...
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Comparing plan values
Is it possible to compare different employers’ pension plans? Buck Consultants in Geneva certainly thinks so and has devised for the Swiss market a method of calculating a ‘technical value’ for each employer’s plan. The exercise was based on a database consisting mainly of internation-al companies operating in Switzerland.We have ...
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LBSS extends custody services
Leading Swedish bank Nordbanken AB has appointed Lloyds Bank Securities Services (LBSS) to provide sub-custody services for its UK portfolio values at £110m ($175m). The portfolio was previously handled by Barclays Securities Services, but the arrangements were reviewed when Barclays was taken over by Morgan Stanley.LBSS has also been appointed ...
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Features
Play your cards to best advantage
Securities lending is a means for pension funds to make their assets work harder. On this page, Rachel Oliver looks at how some pension funds are exploiting the market. Opposite, Mark Faulkner examines the options for those testing the water. On subsequent pages, John Lappin talks to the borrowers and ...
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Features
The key to profitable lending
The key to making money from securities lending ultimately lies in the stocks you hold. Typically a UK pension fund will hold a majority of its assets in UK equities where supply can at times be greater than demand. Equities held in lesser developed countries with illiquid markets typically command ...
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Features
Views from other side of the table
Pension funds are losing their traditional ambivalence about securities lending, according to ‘borrowing’ institutions.Securities lending is becoming a mainstream activity,” says Roy Zimmerhansl, director of equity finance at Nomura in London. “There is a lot less fear and loathing than 10 years ago and more people are talking about it ...
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Features
Finding the right counterpart
The Register of International Securities Financing Counterparts is a central database, held and managed by Securities Finance International, containing profiles of many of the world’s major securities lending custodians, agents, intermediaries and proprietary borrowers. Selecting the right counterparts is a critical part of the securities lending process. Use of the ...
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Features
Loans built into bond pricing
Competitive pressures can only increase the onus on pension fund managers to maximise returns, consistent with the security that trustees and pensioners require.One of the most important of these techniques is to access the repo or bond lending value inherent in portfolios. Bond lending can be a discretionary activity performed ...
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Features
Managing the risks
To combat the risks of a loan return not being made or being delayed, the borrower will be re-quired to deliver collateral to the lender, usually with a market value which exceeds the loaned securities by a margin, typically between 5% and 15%. The margin allows for any variation in ...
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Features
The benchmarking debate: A complex problem
It is widely agreed that a reasonable and consistently applied method of evaluating securities lending performance would benefit both lending clients and their agents. But significant differences of opinion over the best way to establish objective performance measurement criteria have developed within the industry. The approach most commonly proposed is ...
