Latest from IPE Magazine – Page 398
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Features
BP oil spill fuels investor concern
The Gulf of Mexico oil spill is threatening to affect more than just the environment. Investors in BP, including pension funds, have been warned they could suffer in terms of both income and regulation if BP’s share price continues to fall and the dividend payment suspension continues beyond Q3 2010.
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Country Report
Italy: Fondo Cometa: Activist investor
Fondo Cometa, Italy’s largest pension fund with €5.2bn in assets, is discussing terms to implement its new activist investment strategy for domestic equities. Carlo Svaluto Moreolo reports
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Country Report
Italy: Restrictions, restrictions
When it comes to asset allocation, Italian pension funds remain more restricted than their counterparts in the west of Europe due to the limits of legislation, writes Nina Röhrbein. Italian funds also often have their hands tied by employees who make individual investment choices from a pool of guaranteed and balanced lines the funds are obliged to offer – that is, if they even join a pension fund
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Country Report
Italy: Political machinations
As sovereign debt levels rise, and the cost of borrowing increases, Maria Teresa Cometto reports on the effects of the pension sector on Italian public finances and the political willingness to make the necessary changes
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Country ReportItaly: Caution over reform
The proposal for a €1bn government fund investing in SMEs has re-ignited the debate on pension fund investment limits. Carlo Svaluto Moreolo finds pension fund representatives cautious, but ready to argue the case for reform
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Opinion Pieces
Cash Balance
Coca-Cola is the latest big US company to convert its final salary pension plan to cash balance, thereby becoming part of a trend highlighted in a recent survey of the Fortune 100 companies by professional services firm Towers Watson. Of these companies, the number replacing their traditional defined benefit (DB) plans with account-based retirement plans for new employees continues to increase.
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Opinion Pieces
Derivatives
Proposals for legislative measures on uncovered, or naked, short selling of securities and the trade in derivatives – two crucial areas in the EU’s wholesale upgrade of financial legislation post-financial crisis – are open to response from interested parties until 10 July.
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Country ReportSwitzerland: Funding questions
Barbara Ottawa assesses the decision of the Swiss authorities not to force public funds to move to full funding over the coming decades
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Country ReportSwitzerland: Investment decisions in 2009
Pension funds’ investment behaviour has come under heavy criticism from all sides due to the financial crisis, writes Peter Baenziger. Appropriate asset allocation was a major challenge for Swiss pension institutions in 2009
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Special ReportPortfolio Construction: Three Blind Mice
Accounting for fat tails of individual instruments is not the same as managing those tails at portfolio level. Svetlozar (Zari) Rachev and Georgi Mitov explore how advanced copulas might address the problem of fat tails, dependence models and portfolio risk
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Features
Unipension: Risk, adjusted
Martin Steward spoke with Niels Erik Petersen (pictured) and Søren Bang Andersen of Unipension, the consolidated administration service for Denmark’s pension funds for architects, MAs, MScs and PhDs, agricultural academics and veterinary surgeons
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Opinion Pieces
Pension contracts and regulation
Robert C Merton and Jan Snippe argue that Dutch pension legislation should be inspired by fresh and logical thinking
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Country Report
Switzerland: The BVG generation
The BVG/LPP law of 1985 introduced mandatory workplace pensions in Switzerland.Looking back over the last 25 years, IPE questioned five industry figures
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Country Report
Switzerland: Doing the splits
Nina Röhrbein looks at how Switzerland is dividing up the AHV/AVS Social Security Fund to avoid what has been described as ‘an unhealthy state of affairs’
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Country Report
Switzerland: The wrong conversion
Barbara Ottawa assesses March’s national referendum on the mandatory conversion rate for Swiss pensions. This political victory for the few might prove detrimental to the many who will now have to pay higher contributions
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Country Report
Greece: Deep structural problems
Reeta Paakkinen examines Greece’s economic woes and the impact of pension reforms. There are signs that the private sector will have to play a greater role in future provision
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Country Report
Cyprus: Stepping off the path
Nina Rohrbein looks at the effects of Regulation 2/2010 on the conservative asset allocations of Cypriot pension funds
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Country Report
Egypt: Towards reform
Egypt is to supplement its €42bn of social security reserves with a new defined contribution system that has been developed in partnership with the World Bank. The Egyptian deputy minister for finance, Dr Mohammed Maait, told Pirkko Juntunen about the planned new system
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Country Report
Malta: UK QROPS in Malta
As the economic climate stalls national pension reform, UK expatriates can now adminster funds from the locale. Stephanie Testaferrata reports
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Country Report
Turkey: Sector growth
A new generation of investment funds is emerging in Turkish pensions, whose assets could grow to €60bn in 10 years, writes Reeta Paakkinen
