Latest from IPE Magazine – Page 310
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Special Report
Investment Solutions: Not a smooth ride
Ian Morse asks Patrick Groenendijk, CIO of Vervoer about his views on fiduciary management in the light of his fund’s experiences with Goldman Sachs Asset Management
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Special Report
Food for thought for animal welfare
The horse-meat scandal has alerted investors to the importance of animal welfare in the supply chain, finds Nina Röhrbein
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Special Report
With pensions in its sights
Mark Nicholls asesses the UK’s Green Investment Bank plans to target the institutional investment community, and pension funds in particular
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Asset Class Reports
Structured Credit: Wrong to buy?
Europe’s key RMBS markets remain subdued. Lynn Strongin Dodds reports on whether the lack of activity is just about bank stresses – or a more fundamental economic malaise
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Features
The case for the investment book of record
It is essential for investment decisions to be based on accurate and complete information, but obtaining that in the form of an investment book of record is easier for some asset managers than others, according to John Mayr
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Features
Is history quietly repeating itself?
With the system already as heavily leveraged as it was in 2007, markets are hanging on every word from Ben Bernanke. Dan James thinks this only adds to the feeling of déjà vu
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Features
Focus Group: Service providers or trusted advisers?
Perhaps it should come as no surprise that all 28 respondents to this month’s Off The Record poll thought the client relations skills of the overall asset management industry were merely good to mediocre – but when it came to the manager they have known best or longest, almost all rated them good to excellent.
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Features
The solutions business
‘We’re in the solutions business!’ These were the words I was greeted with at the Worldwide Institutional Investing Conference inLondon recently. A fiduciary manager was presenting his vision for pension funds, and all kinds of jargon were thrown out – integral fiduciary management, partial mandate outsourcing, delegated CIOs and segregated diversified growth fund mandates.
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Features
If it looks like a duck
Hybrid corporate bonds are taking off as investors scramble for yield. But Martin Steward wonders if the hybdridity balance is shifting against investors
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Country Report
Italy: Still waiting
Nina Roehrbein notes potential interest in emerging markets and declining exposure to domestic government debt among Italy’s occupational pension funds
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Country Report
Italy: Economic reality bites hard
Job losses and a tough economic environment are forcing pension funds Fonchim and Cometa to review and restructure their investment objectives, writes Carlo Svaluto Moreolo In testing times for the Italian job market, two of the country’s largest pension schemes, Fonchim and Cometa, are gradually adjusting their investment strategies to ...
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Country Report
Italy: ENPAM gets back into gear
Embroiled in a scandal in 2011, has ENPAM now turned the corner? Carlo Svaluto Moreolo reports The ENPAM pension fund for medical professionals published its balance sheet in May, reassuring members that the dark days of the past are finally over. In 2012 the fund recorded a €1.3bn budget surplus ...
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Country Report
Italy: Mangusta Risk advocates pension funds spend more time on passive portfolios
Any adviser, large or small, would have seen an opportunity when the Italian pension market opened up less than 20 years ago, with the establishment of many new medium and large-sized pension schemes.
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Country Report
Italy: Three sparks needed to ignite the Italian pensions market
State Street Global Advisor (SSGA) is one of the leading Italian institutional asset managers, managing €10bn of domestic institutional investors’ funds as of June 2013. It holds 13 mandates from closed pension schemes such as Cometa and Fonchim and 15 mandates from casse di previdenza, a sector where the Milan-based asset manager is the undisputed leader, giving the firm a broad view of the Italian institutional investment market. Marco Fusco, SSGA’s head of southern Europe outlined the three sparks he believes are needed to ignite the Italian market.
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Country Report
Italy: Compulsory membership and education are key to improving pension system
Francesco Vallacqua is a research fellow of Center for Applied Research and Finance (CAREFIN) at Bocconi University of Milan. He has held positions as a consultant to governmental institutions and pension schemes, such as at Cometa, the fund for mechanical engineering industry workers, and is currently a board member of Espero, the teaching professionals’ fund.
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Country Report
Italy: COVIP weathers the storms of Italian politics
Covip annual statement: In 2013 membership of private pension schemes increases, albeit slowly, at 5.3% adding 290,000 more members to the total 5.8m. Funds have grown between 8% and 9% in 2012, compared to 2.9% growth of the trattamento di fine rapporto.
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Country Report
Italy: The recovery starts at home for Cometa as it seeks to stabilise its membership
At Cometa, the €7.3bn scheme for workers employed by the metal and mechanical engineering industries, the membership issue is more urgent. The scheme has about 427,000 members, less than half the one million potential members in the sector. The figure is unlikely to rise significantly in 2013 because of the condition of the sector, where factories are closing or laying off workers. So the scheme is focusing on keeping its current members.
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Opinion Pieces
Happy in the hot seat
Jeremy Woolfe asks Gabriel Bernardino, the chairman of the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority, about the challenges he faces stuck in the crossfire of the conflicting interests of the European pensions industry
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Opinion Pieces
Peter Borgdorff, CEO, PFZW
“When I think of the destination of this money, I think of the woman who cycles from house to house and cleans someone’s bottom”
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Country Report
Switzerland: Rights and responsibilities
Nina Rohrbein analyses the consequences for Swiss pension funds, their advisers and asset managers of the referendum on executive pay
