Latest from IPE Magazine – Page 938
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Features
Europe starts to face up to the ageing crisis
An old age crisis is approaching in most of Europe. The need for change is clear and the voices in favour are getting louder. We should try to cope with the crisis in an efficient and socially acceptable way. The guiding principles should be that the elderly must be able ...
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Features
BMW puts car at the core
BMW (GB), UK subsidiary of the giant German carmaker, took a novel aproach to restructuring its employee benefit programme, making full use of the company’s renowned product. There was a time when every employee in the company could be placed by the model of car they drove. Thanks to BMW’s ...
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Features
Military minds train on financial targets
Military strategists are moving their skills to the trading floors near Bank in the City of London. BZW announced at the beginning of this year that it had teamed up with the Ministry of Defence. It has joined with the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA) and DERA’s support services ...
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Features
The drive to be the biggest of them all
Bob Crew explains the thinking behind BoNY’s increased interest in State Street
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Features
Change at political pace
With a new pensions law in place, the investment climate in France is changing, despite the government’s timidity on financial reform and public opposition to planned privatisations. John Lappin reports The historic exterior of the Paris Bourse belies the dynamism with which it is stealing a march on other markets ...
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French equity funds sparkle in the run-up to EMU
David Hunt looks at the domestic and offshore choice
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Features
Papering over the cracks
Crisis in the Japanese pensions provision is providing new opportunities for investment advisers, as major corporates rethink their strategies. George Curuby reports Mounting pressure on Japanese plan sponsors has resulted recently in a torrent of new mandates for investment advisers. The fundamental problems of sponsors are being exposed by the ...
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Features
System comes under strain
A number of reports over the past year have lifted the lid off the simmering pot of pensions discontent within corporate Japan. The picture is one of a system in deep crisis and widespread fears that things will get worse. Late last year 71 corporate pensions plans issued a report ...
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Features
First choose your local benchmark
Francis Paxton looks at the range of equity indices available
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Features
Getting Japan's weighting right
The traditional methods of setting a weight for Japan in international portfolios have given investors a false idea of the market’s significance, argues John Morrell
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Features
Feeling the heat
British pension fund managers themselves say they are shying away from the UK stock market as the year begins, amid worries that equities are overvalued. The economy may overheat around general election time, raising concerns about inflation which could in turn lead to a burst of monetary tightening later on, ...
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Features
Belgacom goes global
Last year the Belgacom Pension Fund selected eight fund managers and a custodian bank to handle the first tranche of its Bfr55bn ($1.6bn) fund, from the 60-plus respondents to its contract offer. Following an asset liability study to determine the strategic asset allocation, provisional benchmarks and tactical asset limits were ...
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Features
Managers get rises
In a recent report Greenwich Associates, assessing the rarely examined area of compensation, shows most compensation rising significantly, but with a relative fall in the position of funds from American owned subsidiaries. The population for this survey was 354 of the largest tax exempt funds in the UK, representing 73% ...
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Features
Another good year for UK fund performance
UK pension funds have had another good year, according to both UK investment performance measurement companies. The WM Company, with over 75% of the UK market, and CAPS, with 22%, both calculate that pension funds enjoyed an overall average return of over 11% in 1996. (CAPS figures are provisional.) For ...
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Features
Setting a global standard
Thirteen European countries, expanding from a core group of eight, are participating in a project to produce European and global standards for investment performance measurement. The momentum for establishing recognised standards come from different bodies depending on the country, according to Dugald Eadie, chairman of the European Federation of Financial ...
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Features
UK: PFPVs make progress
Progress towards setting up Pooled Fund Pension Vehicles (PFPVs) continues, with the Guernsey and Jersey authorities giving a yes vote to the plan. Approaches have been made or are due to be made to 13 other national tax authorities, while Ernst and Young, the firm overseeing the introduction of PFPVs, ...
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Features
USA: Looking to the long term come what may
If you were a US pension manager faced with the rise and rise of the US market, what would your domestic equity strategy be? Three plan sponsors have come up with responses that are surprisingly uniform despite their contrasting styles. The giant $105bn CALPERS has 80% of its $43bn US ...
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Features
USA: Native speakers hushed
The US equity market has been experiencing a long-term bull run. One result has been a significant move into index-tracking funds. It is important to evaluate the US fund groups as managers of domestic and international equities. This analysis takes a deliberately skewed look at the markets, from the perspective ...
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Features
UK: Discounting the election
The general election’s impact on the markets will be limited but, according to UK analysts, it will mark a dividing line for activity in both the bond and equity markets. Whoever wins will inherit a relatively benign economic picture. At Commerzbank in London, treasurer and deputy general manager Jean-Michael D’Oultremont ...
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Features
UK: New products, new providers
Ten years ago, the vast majority of UK pooled funds were mixed funds provided by insurance companies. These funds invested in a range of securities and bonds, with the two key choices of asset allocation and stock selection left to the manager’s discretion. Over time these funds have increasingly held ...
