Latest from IPE Magazine – Page 268
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Features
The high stakes of stakeholder group reform
Changes to the governance and funding structure of the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) now seem inevitable, after it was adopted as one of the core policies for new European commissioner Jonathan Hill.
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Features
The UK regulator has got its teeth back
Champagne corks were popping back in August near the UK’s south coast when Brighton-based UK Pensions Regulator (TPR) ended a six-year legal battle with the insolvent Lehman Brothers.
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Opinion Pieces
Crony capitalism
The public gets it. Academics and financial analysts get it. In fact, many experts say it is the most important governance and democracy issue of our time. So why do investors have so little to say about political donations and the corporate capture of politics?
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Opinion Pieces
Woody at work
Woody is the villain of the new book The US Pension Crisis – What We Need to Do Now to Save America’s Pensions, by Ronald Ryan. According to Ryan, Woody is the “pension pencil” or “the weapon of mass destruction in financial America”, used since the 1990s for accounting gimmicks that conceal the real financial situation of pension funds.
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Opinion Pieces
A stinging rebuke
The private pension product sector is “persistently the worst-performing retail services market of all throughout the European Union”, according to the European Commission, as cited in a new report.
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Opinion Pieces
“Governance can serve as a stimulus to improve and nurture pension organisations”
Once a year, the US professional basketball league organises its all-star competition. Players from teams across the country are selected as the best in their respective positions. Could we have an all-star pension industry, uniting the best standards and practices under one roof?
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Asset Class Reports
Time for some caution with this asset class
How do you invest in high-yield bonds and loans?
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Features
Avoiding the trap
The decision by the IFRS interpretations committee to re-examine its asset-ceiling guidance should serve to focus minds once again on how defined-benefit plan sponsors can address the danger of a trapped surplus. Stephen Bouvier explores the issues with two experts from Aon Hewitt’s UK practices
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Features
How we run our money - Prudent and dynamic
Miguel Branco, deputy director of Banco de Portugal pension fund, tells Carlo Svaluto Moreolo about his fund’s investment and risk strategy
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Asset Class Reports
Dangerous liquidity
Following another summer of high-yield bond market volatility, Emma Cusworth asks whether ETFs are to blame for credit markets getting riskier
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Features
Keeping it in the family
Jennifer Bollen asks why buyers of private equity secondaries tend to be owners of primary interests already, and finds the current hot market conditions explain some of the advantages
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Features
Race for solutions picks up pace
Incumbent managers have a natural advantage with mature pension funds in the provision of solution-type services, finds Pádraig Floyd
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Features
Evergreen mandate takes root
Mark Mansley and Faith Ward of the UK’s Environment Agency Pension Fund tell Jonathan Williams about the scheme’s plans for an ‘evergreen’ sustainable equity mandate and discuss how investment management agreements of indefinite length will spread
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Interviews
Three years of the 300
Liam Kennedy spoke to Alan Brown and Saker Nusseibeh, two architects of the 300 Club of investment professionals who seek to challenge mainstream investment practice
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Interviews
Experience, leveraged
Babson Capital immediately springs to mind for institutional investors around the world seeking global fixed-income managers, but that is a key goal for CEO Tom Finke. Having raised $5bn (€3.9bn) from European investors alone in 2013 it certainly looks well-positioned to one day be ranked among the market leaders.
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Features
The big picture
ECB president Draghi is certainly making a name for himself with his market-jolting, memorable speeches. In 2012, his strident call that the euro would be saved “whatever it takes” marked, or arguably triggered, Europe’s move out of its crisis. In August, Draghi made a speech in Jackson Hole that surprised many with the nature some of its statements, in particular his opining on Europe’s fiscal policy.
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Features
Post-crisis or pre-crisis?
History warns us that the next crisis is just around the corner. Arturo Bris outlines the shapes it is taking and what we can do to mitigate it
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Features
Focus Group: Contending with the ‘do-gooders’
Just over half of respondents polled for this month’s Focus Group said their fund has an overall ESG policy. Around the same number have an active engagement policy for corporate governance issues – and 21 have decided to exclude specific investment areas due to ESG considerations.
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Features
Diary of an Investor: A happy median
A couple of weeks ago, my old friend Pim came over to the Wasserdicht offices in Utrecht to tell me about his new proposition. I’ve known Pim for many years and he has pitched to me many times, although each pitch has been from a different company.
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Features
Integrity matters
While they have been few in number, the various scandals at European pension funds have brought to light the need for clear and coherent codes of conduct for pension trustees and staff, writes Gail Moss
