Latest from IPE Magazine – Page 353
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Features
Pawns in need of a knight
Eastman Kodak retirees, both present and future, would appear to be in need of a hero. They will be wringing their hands over the news that the company filed for bankruptcy protection in late January. Those based in the UK, however, are likely to be a bit more concerned about their retirement, and with good reason.
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Features
A different world
Now we have reached the ripe old age of 15, IPE has achieved a fairly good perspective on things. Back in February 1997 when we published our first issue, e-mail was a novelty and hand-held computing devices were a twinkle in someone’s eye.
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Opinion Pieces
Long-term Matters: Learning from bailouts
Why do bankers still not get their part in, to use Ken Rogoff’s phrase, the ‘Great Recession’? And what have institutional investors learned from these bailouts? An interesting CFA Institute blog shows that bailouts today are more frequent and more destructive than ever before. Unsurprisingly, the ‘why’ is deeply contested. Here’s my diagnosis to balance orthodoxy.
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Features
Lost in accounting
It looks like 2012 is going to be busy for the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) as significant projects towards completion, some affecting pensions accounting. In the first quarter of the year the feedback statement on the agenda consultation process will be published. If you are expecting this to be a simple binary choice some time before Easter that adds up to ‘Yes, we will do pension plan measurement issues,’ or ‘No, we won’t,’ then think again. The board will only take that decision after it has held a series of roundtable meetings and tied in the agenda process with the conclusions reached in the entirely separate strategic review.
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Opinion Pieces
EIOPA's draft response to the EC on Solvency II
The consultation issued by EIOPA, on its draft response to the EC’s questions about how Solvency II can be amended to apply to pension schemes, closed on 2 January 2012. EIOPA had been asked for advice on how to meet the EC’s objectives of simplifying setting up cross border schemes, modernising the prudential regulation of defined contribution schemes and enabling IORPs to take advantage of risk mitigation techniques. A key procedural objective for the EC is for a consistent regulatory structure to apply across the financial services sector, and it believes this can be achieved by adapting the principles underlying Solvency II for pension schemes.
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Features
Stay on top of benefits
Gail Moss reports on best practice to ensure pensioners receive the right benefit at the right time
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Features
Pensions with independence
Canadian pension funds underwent a transformation in the 1990s, writes Joel Kranc. Greater independence has bred a private investment-style mantra that is envied around the world
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Features
Change without regret
Liam Kennedy spoke with Angelien Kemna, chief investment officer of APG, the Netherlands’ largest pension asset manager with AUM of €278bn, about her policies of ‘minimum regret’ and ‘controlled simplification’
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Country Report
Ireland: Greatly diminshed
The National Pensions Reserve Fund was designed to help fund future government pension liabilities, writes Pádraig Floyd. How has it fared amid the chaos of the financial markets of 2011?
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Features
One step forward, two steps back
Given the problems in Europe, distressed debt would appear to be all the rage, writes Joel Kranc. But waiting out events might prove to be even more lucrative
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Features
The real safe haven?
High yield is priced so keenly it would take a euro-zone break-up to really threaten investors, finds Anthony Harrington
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Features
Back to the real economy
Government and bank debt is the problem, not the solution, writes Christine Johnson. If you want safety, follow the money – to large corporates
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Asset Class Reports
Small & Mid-Caps: The small-cap dilemma
Small-caps promise so much as an asset class. But Joseph Mariathasan outlines just how difficult it can be to create a viable business out of managing them
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Asset Class Reports
Small & Mid-Caps: The 800-pound gorilla
UK exposure – or lack of it – has been decisive in European small and mid-caps. But Martin Steward finds that managers have also had to contend with a difficult ‘risk-on, risk-off’ environment
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Asset Class Reports
Small & Mid-Caps: Bulls and bears square up
Being on the defensive has paid in 2011, writes Martin Steward. But the US is a confusingly mixed prospect for the coming year
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Special Report
Equity Sectors: Don’t bank on it
Insurers, exchanges, asset managers, emerging-market banks – even US banks – will continue to outperform as the herd deserts the European banking industry, finds Lynn Strongin Dodds
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Special Report
Equity Sectors: On the mend
Investors should stop obsessing about ‘patent cliffs’ and recognise the healthcare opportunities in an ageing population and growing emerging wealth, writes Charlotte Moore
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Special Report
Equity Sectors: All about the luxury brand
Charlotte Moore finds that the consumer sector is no longer all about staples and cyclicals, but rather brands and emerging markets
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Special Report
The evolution of corporate reporting
Sustainability reporting has yet to establish its presence but integrated reporting is trying to gain a foothold within the environmental, social and governance (ESG) arena. Nina Röhrbein reports
