Latest from IPE Magazine – Page 432
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Features
Hard times hit real economy
Yield curve/duration The world’s central banks have been cutting official rates worldwide. Special mention goes to the Bank of England (BoE) with an eye popping 150bps cut. This drastic move is seen by many as a clear acknowledgement that it has been slow to react and insufficiently proactive. Now there ...
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FeaturesSigns of a year of eastern promise
Joseph Mariathasan looks at the economic conditions that have made investing in Asian, and particularly Chinese, private equity favourable
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FeaturesHold or fold?
Small and mid caps have taken a beating in the market downturn. Joseph Mariathasan assesses their outlook
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Features
Two paths to passive tactics
There are more and more ways to access passive investment strategies – in terms of fund types, approaches to benchmark replication and the range of providers. Here, Liam Kennedy looks at sampling and synthetic approaches to indexation
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Features
Get down to the detail
Transaction proposals for collateralised finance trades are still not acknowledging the appropriate risks, says Jeroen Wilbrink. Pension funds should only make their balance sheet available at the right price
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FeaturesPension funds see crisis role
Europe’s mighty central banks are being stretched to their limits, not only in the range of problems they need to fix, but also in their financial firepower. In some countries, pension funds have stepped in as the new investors of last resort, transforming themselves almost overnight into Pension Fund plc ...
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Special ReportHow do you get your message across?
In these extra-turbulent times, we wanted to know how keen members were to remain abreast of their pensions and how schemes were adapting, if at all, their communications policies to ensure members understood the risks they are taking. We asked for your views.
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Special Report
Diary of an Investor: Problems, problems, problems
Problems, Problems, Problems, and this time from the one area that we thought had been relatively immune from the financial chaos, namely custody. Let me be clear; our relationship with our custodian has been good. Their ability to provide standardised reporting and ancillary services is fine, and the matter-of-fact and ...
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Special ReportYou’ve got mail
IPE asked pension funds in Austria, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands: ‘How are you communicating with your members?’
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FeaturesPutting off mañana
Although the leading political parties agree they should revisit the Toledo pact that is the basic text of Spain’s pensions reform, they have yet to agree when. And pensions are just not on the current government’s agenda, writes George Coats
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FeaturesMoves to maintain the balance
Spain’s €57bn reserve fund is intended to help plug the anticipated deficit in the social security budget. Diego Valero Carreras explains the background
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Features
Filling in the GAAP
Spain has introduced new accounting rules. Guillermo Ezcurra explains how the new regulation is organised and identifies which parts are relevant to pensions accounting
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Special ReportSupervision of Portugal’s market
New regulations came into force last year. Gert Verheij assesses their implementation at a challenging time for pension funds and their sponsors
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Special ReportGetting the correct balance
Javier Aibar Bernard is the general director of the Social Security Treasury, which oversees Spain’s €55.9m Reserve Fund, the Fondo de Reserva de la Seguridad Social (FRSS). He explains to George Coats how the fund is run and discusses its ability to fulfil its role
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FeaturesRediscover common sense virtues
In the second in a series of articles on a new report, Amin Rajan argues that asset allocation is more about mindsets than models, as pension funds move from calendar time to real time
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Features
An area that needs more light
Pension funds should be more concerned about investment managers’ asset allocation skill, but there’s no easy way to measure it, says Joseph Mariathasan
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FeaturesNow for the hard work
The credit crunch has finally exploded in the face of European pension funds. Georg Inderst looks at the problems this has created as investment managers make asset allocation decisions and offers potential solutions
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FeaturesAdvantages of a naïve approach
Dirk Soehnholz and Marcus Burkert find that ‘naïve’ strategic asset allocation offers improved risk/return characteristics over traditional ‘pseudo-optimised’ asset allocation
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FeaturesA driving interest in convertible hybrids
Convertibles are on the agenda. They played a leading role in financing the US railroad boom of the start of the 20th century, and in Japan in the 1980s when the countr y’s issuance represented 40% of the global convertible market. Bank recapitalisation will involve them. Goldman Sach’s agreement with ...
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FeaturesPensions in Obama’s sights
When Barack Obama is inaugurated as president in January 2009, provisions affecting the pension fund industry could well be an important part of his intended new economic stimulus. But this follows little debate about the retirement system during the campaign, except when US employee’s losses in 401(k) individual accounts were ...
