Latest from IPE Magazine – Page 428
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Country ReportIt’s all a matter of timing
Market downturns and French pension reforms appear to co-incide. George Coats assesses the issues
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Country Report
Missed opportunity
Employee savings plans could have been the next big thing in French financial services but they have failed to take off. Alain Lemoine examines why
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Country Report
RAPF: allocating for the long term
The past year has been a busy one for RAFP, the €6.3bn French civil service supplementary pension scheme that was established in 2005
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Country Report
Flying a flag for the Perco
In 2004 Christel Bapt and Benoît Magnier saw an opening in the market. At the time they were both working for bfinance, but they decided to branch out on their own and formed Altedia Investment Consulting.
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Country Report
Forced to settle for a draw
The FRR has looked vulnerable for some time and the market downturn has not helped its cause. But it has fought off the immediate threats to its future, finds George Coats
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Country ReportA Napoleonic view of sovereign wealth
Last October president Nicolas Sarkozy surprised a European Parliament meeting in Strasbourg by announcing that France was to have a sovereign wealth fund. Subsequently, government officials spoke of a €100bn fund.
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Country ReportStart of consolidation wave?
The SGAM/CAAM merger is expected to trigger a shakeout among French asset managers. George Coats examines why it is happening and what the new landscape might look like
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Country Report
Coping with stress
Life insurers are France’s largest institutional investors. Alain Lemoine assesses how they are responding to the current crisis
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Special Report
Microfinance reaches crossroads
Not yet significantly hit by the global financial crisis, there are signs that the microfinance sector may be about to enter a period of slower growth, finds Nina Röhrbein
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FeaturesA horror year for the German fund market
The year 2008 will go down in history as the worst ever for the German fund business. The financial crisis created not only created a catastrophic climate on the financial markets but with it a poor environment for inflows to retail mutual funds and institutional Spezialfonds.
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Features
Bearish sentiments dominate
Our Sovereign Lord the King chargeth and commandeth all persons, being assembled, immediately to disperse themselves, and peaceably to depart to their habitations, or to their lawful business, upon the pains contained in the Act made in the first year of King George, for preventing tumults and riotous assemblies. God ...
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Opinion Pieces
Physician, heal thyself
Are pension funds victims of the current financial meltdown or are they part of the problem?
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Opinion Pieces“A long-term average interest rate will improve the solvency position of Dutch funds”
The pension sector is in dire straits. In the Netherlands, a majority of funds show a funding ratio lower than ever, indicating that they cannot fulfil their liabilities in the long term (their funding ratio is below 100%).
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InterviewsBig in Japan – ready for Europe?
Having been through its own painful credit crunch during the ‘lost decade’ of the 1990s, Japan entered the current global version with government, corporate and household debt at relatively healthy levels.
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Features
Diary of an Investor: Consultants enter tiger’s lair
We had our yearly get-together last week. All the investment directors of Wasserdicht Pension Funds descended on Amsterdam. Yoshi from Tokyo, Hans from Frankfurt, Jim from Boston, Geert from Jo’Burg and Clive from London.
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FeaturesCan’t live with them, can’t live without them
Pension funds tend to hire investment consultants for reasons such as their specialist knowledge and ability to provide independent advice. But do they hold up to these expectations?
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FeaturesThe riot continues
The conquistador Hernando Cortez once said: “We Spaniards know a sickness of the heart only gold can cure.”
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FeaturesThe big picture
It would be silly to predict the bottom of a deep recession on the basis of a single month’s volatile manufacturing PMI data
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Special ReportIssues around healthcare
Opinions differ on the reputational issues of companies in sectors like healthcare and mining. Nina Röhrbein asks if investors really need to abstain
