Latest from IPE Magazine – Page 339
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Special ReportGlobal assets flatline at €36.3trn
Asset managers in our listing are ranked by global asset sunder management, and by the country of the main headquarters and/or main European domicile. Assets managed by these groups are in excess of €36.3trn.
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Special ReportTop 120 European institutional managers
This breakdown details total third-party asset managed for all types of European institutional clients - pension funds, insurance companies, corporates, charities and foundations - for the leading 120 managers in this business segment. Total assets are €5.4trn (2010=€5.7trn)
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Features
Alarm call
Persistently low rates are taking their toll on pension funding levels throughout Europe. Now they have forced authorities in three European countries – Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden – to act to shore up pension funding, to allow providers to meet their guarantees, or to avoid benefit cuts.
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Features
Have bond markets become myopic?
In this month’s commodities report we address two phenomena – the slowdown and transition of China’s economy, and the US shale gas revolution – that could profoundly change our entire macroeconomic framework.
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Features
Long live the deal...
The Dutch pension deal, as such, is off the table. But despite all the political turmoil, a working group representing experts, government, supervisors and various stakeholders has continued to hammer out the details of the new system, resulting in the long-awaited outline presented on 30 May. The pension deal is dead. Long live the pension deal.
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Features
Looking to IORP III?
The European Commission’s decision to postpone to summer 2013 its white paper on the IORP II Directive represents yet another delay in a highly protracted process that has to balance the need for reform of the first IORP Directive, the interests of occupational pensions and the insurance industry, as well as the Commission’s desire, as a lead global initiator of financial services legislation, to test the limits of its competence in harmonising EU laws.
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Features
Brussels pulls a Green Paper out of its hat
The pension industry’s lobbying campaign over the revised IORP Directive seems to be bearing fruit. Not only has Brussels agreed to postpone the publication of a draft version of the Directive until next summer, the Commission is also set to launch a Green Paper on long-term investing.
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Features
The sustainability of longevity
As longevity becomes an increasing problem in developed nations, governments have moved to increase retirement ages, with some either considering or legislating for an automatic link to longevity. Despite its popularity among both national parliaments and the European Union, however, the OECD has warned that any such link could be very difficult to implement.
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Features
Schemes get on track for central clearing
The European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR) – like most new legislation – has its share of critics. It will hit derivatives players, of course, who have lamented the increased costs the new rules will entail. But it could also have a deep impact on pension funds and their governance.
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Features
The managed decline of DB pension funds
The death of defined benefit (DB) funds has, in some form, been prophesied for decades, but the latest threat of closure – stemming from the publication of statutory guidelines on Ireland’s new funding standard – may well prove to be a real and insurmountable threat to final salary schemes in the country.
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Features
Pensions Accounting: Willingly deceived
The world wants to be deceived and deceived it will be. The Roman satirist Petronius’s acerbic critique of human nature is a convenient introduction to an issue in front of the IFRS interpretations committee in May. It all starts with a letter from the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA).
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Opinion Pieces
Chris Sutton, Towers Watson
Pension funds find themselves between a rock and the hard place as they struggle to provide for ageing populations in a tough investment climate. As a result of this, and of an inheritance of under-funding, retirement savings continue to attract media and public policy attention. Will pension funds be overcome by looming threats or seize the opportunity for change?
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Features
Vision to reality
Who’s ahead in the race for cross-border pension assets? Gail Moss reports on factors behind the choice of domicile
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Features
Back to 4%?
Mariska van der Westen outlines the Netherlands’ proposed ‘ultimate forward rate’ within the new framework for pension funds, which aims to marry real and nominal objectives
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Features
Defined ambition and supervision
The Dutch pension sector is working on new pension contracts, with softer benefits as the expected outcome. Meanwhile, the European Commission has planned to revise the IORP Directive and European supervision of pension funds. Dick Boeijen, Niels Kortleve and Jan-Willem Wijckmans ask if these processes are compatible
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Features
Against the grain
Mike Weston of Daily Mail & General Trust Pension Scheme tells Nina Röhrbein about his fund’s forward-looking approach to investment decision making
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Features
Toxic assets, or toxic prices?
Charlotte Moore finds that the anticipated flow of bank assets is more likely to be a trickle – thanks to the very regulation that was supposed to open the floodgates
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Features
Over-funded, over 2008… and over here
US players are set to rule distressed Europe, writes Jennifer Bollen, but local players could offer crucial cultural advantages
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Features
Unconventional wisdom
The search for yield is leading investors to hunt down illiquidity premia. Florian de Sigy and Benjamin Keefe make the case for secondary hedge fund interests
