Latest from IPE Magazine – Page 356
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Features
Another fine mess
Ollie: “Buying that bridge was no mistake. That’s going to be worth a lot of money to us someday.” – Way Out West (1937).
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Features
From our perspective: Part of the solution
One of the more depressing side effects of the financial crisis has been the spectacle of government attacks on funded pensions. But the practice is not new. Back in autumn 2003, the Belgian government nationalised €3.6bn in first pillar pension assets held by the former state telecoms monopoly Belgacom. As finance minister, Gordon Brown launched a bold attack on UK pensions in 1997 when he announced the abolition of dividend tax relief for pension funds.
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Features
Alternative to euro-zone survival far worse
The euro-zone will survive, if only because the alternative to the current market turbulence would be worse, said former Swedish prime minister Göran Persson.
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Features
Funds must apply holistic approach to equity risk
Pension funds assessing their ability to take on equity risk would do well to adopt a “holistic” approach that considers not only the more “technical” aspects of risk associated with financial products, but also the ability of schemes’ sponsors to cover that risk.
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Features
‘Democracy will be threatened if you lose grip on public finances’
Former Swedish prime minister Göran Persson recalled the night in 1997 when the EU’s Stability and Growth pact was negotiated. His cabinet had already made the decision that Sweden would not join. “We had decided we were not mature enough to join this club, so we would wait. But even then, we were in much better shape than many of those who took it as a given that they should join the euro-zone.”
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Features
Infrastructure for all – but not with state aid
The UK chancellor, George Osborne, last year announced plans to attract £20bn (€23bn) of pension fund assets into infrastructure projects, backed by the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) and the Pension Protection Fund (PPF).
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Features
Solvency II again raises hackles in Frankfurt
The sixth European Federation for Retirement Provision (EFRP) conference as well as the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) conference were held in Frankfurt at the end of November and were a one-off for at least two reasons.
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Features
Long-Term Matters: It’s the water, stupid
I predict that water will become the single most important physical commodity-based asset class, dwarfing oil, copper, agricultural commodities and precious metals.
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Features
Updating the update
Our glorious G20 leaders have charged the IASB with two tasks in relation to financial instruments accounting: reduce the complexity of accounting standards for financial instruments; and strengthen accounting recognition of loan-loss provisions by incorporating a broader range of credit information.
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Features
Volatility – friend or foe?
Amin Rajan asks what if we are in a prolonged era of fatter tails and frequent bubbles?
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Opinion Pieces
Liz Murrall & Jonathan Lipkin, Investment Management Association
Much has been written about investment managers churning stocks, to the detriment of client returns, investee companies and potentially the overall stability of the economy.
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Interviews
Do you invest in frontier markets?
Has the time finally come for Africa’s ‘frontier markets’? Three pension funds share their views.
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Features
Find the right provider
Gail Moss outlines how pension funds should manage the tender process to ensure they appoint the right providers
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Features
Fears about Solvency II
Pension funds are broadly against Solvency II. Yet the EC is still assessing whether parts of it might apply to pension funds through a new IORP Directive, writes Nina Röhrbein
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Features
Shifting horizons
Timo Loyttyniemi, managing director of Valtion Eläkerahasto (VER), tells Martin Steward why the Finnish buffer fund’s sure touch through the crisis means that the latest change to its targets might just be the last
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Country Report
Central and Eastern Europe: Russia’s hot potato
Iain Morse surveys Russia’s nascent occupational pensions market
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Country Report
Central and Eastern Europe: Domestic pressure
Measures by Iceland’s Central Bank to gradually adjust the krona’s exchange rate are forcing pension funds to invest mainly in domestic krona-denominated assets, reports Iain Morse
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Special Report
Latin America:Waking up from the Chilean nap
At its annual ex-US meeting, the Harris School’s Dean’s International Council heard from a range of officials about how Chile is developing and implementing public policies to reach its development goals. Christopher O’Dea reports
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Special Report
Latin America: Across the Tropic of Capricorn
Chile’s well-funded pension scheme has been a major factor in the country climbing the global economic ladder. And minister of finance, Felipe Larraín Bascuñán, claims that in these tough economic times Chile’s strength will be ‘part of the solution’. Christopher O’Dea spoke to him
