Latest from IPE Magazine – Page 25
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Country ReportCEE country report 2024: Poland’s auto-enrolment system - five years on
Slow but steady progress in auto enrolment is driving growth in workplace pension assets and membership
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Asset Class ReportsFixed income: Investors put weight behind bond markets
Exposure to bonds is rising at the fastest rate since the financial crisis, as investors focus on high-quality paper and the shorter end of the yield curve
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Country ReportPoland’s pension online dashboard takes shape
Wider access to personal financial information is a step in a good direction – but will savers appreciate it?
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Asset Class ReportsDebt investors face European uncertainty
High interest rates and inflation are the biggest concerns as recession looms
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Country ReportFirst-pillar pension reform versus fiscal consolidation in Romania
The law reforming the first-pillar pension system could amplify fiscal deficit problems in the shorter term
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Country ReportBulgaria’s pension funds look to Europe
The country’s pension sector is seeking greater flexibility in investment fund options
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Country ReportSecond-pillar pensions in Central & Eastern Europe
Assets, membership and asset allocation
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Opinion PiecesReasons to be cheerful in ESG-land
In 1979 Ian Dury, an influential British musician, released a song called ‘Reasons to be Cheerful, Pt 3’, which quickly became a classic. Let us consider why the world of environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing offers grounds for good cheer in the year ahead, even if it is not as rousing as the song.
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Opinion PiecesAgreement on Stability and Growth Pact spells Austerity reload
The reform of the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) proposed by the European Commission (EC) in March 2023 had been criticised from all sides, but just before Christmas, European finance ministers agreed on new terms. The SGP had been suspended in response to the COVID-19 crisis but comes back into force in 2024.
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Opinion PiecesIBM revives defined benefit pensions in the US
This January 2024 marks an important turning point in the US retirement industry. Technology giant IBM, which has always been seen as a bellwether of American business practices, is keeping its 401(k) plan, but will stop matching contributions of up to 6%.
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Opinion PiecesAustralia's super funds strengthen their voice
A new superannuation advocacy body has been established in Australia. Known as the Super Members Council of Australia (SMC), it will become the voice of Australia’s rapidly-growing profit-to-members super funds.
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Opinion PiecesWhy DC pensions should choose private equity as first step into illiquids
Governments, regulators, central banks and even trustees are talking about illiquid investments and the productive economy. This is correctly driven by an underlying belief that illiquid assets can improve overall portfolio risk-adjusted returns. But most importantly, if defined contribution (DC) trustees are already keen to get behind productive finance, where do they start if they currently allocate nothing to illiquids?
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Features
Insurance-linked securities wind brings good news for investors
In the two decades prior to 2022, the negative correlation between stock and treasury bond market returns has been a key driver of institutional investor portfolio construction. Fixed income allocations provided investors significant relief during equity market downturns and increased expected risk-adjusted returns for the popular 60/40 stock/bond portfolio.
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FeaturesWill delayed economic bad news hit the market this year?
Global economic growth was below potential in 2023, but still markedly stronger than the forecasts had been indicating at the start of the year, with the US leading the way and even the likes of Europe and the UK, though hardly stellar performers, posting better than expected economic activity.
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Opinion PiecesPensions are instrumental in Europe’s unfinished capital markets project
This summer will mark 10 years since Jean-Claude Juncker, former EU Commission president, outlined a vision for a European Capital Markets Union (CMU) – a project both uncompleted and still acutely needed.
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AnalysisHigh stakes as pension funds take on Tesla
A group of Nordic pension funds is tentatively standing up to Elon Musk’s electric car giant, in reaction to a labour dispute at Tesla in Sweden. The strike at the end of October by 130 Tesla workers affiliated with IF Metall led to a wave of sympathy strikes which spread to Norway, Denmark and Finland.
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InterviewsInvestors poised to raise fixed-income allocations
European institutions discuss their strategies for fixed income, which is finally attracting capital as central banks reach the end of the hiking cycle
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FeaturesNLP can help identify linkages between equity market peers
Natural language processing in AI provides a way to gain insights from unstructured data at scale, allowing access to information across a broad set of investment opportunities
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Book ReviewBook review: The Financial Markets of Ancient Egypt – Risk and Return
“If men could learn from history, what lessons it might teach us. But passion and party blind our eyes.”
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FeaturesIPE Quest Expectations Indicator - January 2024
It is safe to predict that 2024 will be a year of desperate campaigning. Political surprises in the US and UK are possible and, this time, they do make a difference to markets
