Latest from IPE Magazine – Page 440
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IP Asia
The new Indian Provident Fund
Carl Redondo assesses the winners and losers from India’s new pension savings initiative
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Features
IASB continues its comedy of errors
Further deliberation of the International Accouting Standards Board’s (IASB) preliminary views on pensions accounting kicked-off pretty much as we would expect, with staff failing to meet a self-imposed deadline, and a dose of unnecessary secrecy. The plan, said Andrea Pryde, on 19 November, was to “present an overview of the ...
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Features
Commodity turnaround
With volatility is still at its highest levels (56%), the stock markets again had to face adverse conditions in November and produced a significantly negative return (-7.18%), although this was less than half October’s record. The S&P500 index has now returned to its level of July 2003. Similarly, the commodities ...
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Features
Negative streak continues
Hedge funds continued their negative streak for the sixth month in a row, falling 0.8% as November saw the continuation of several of the dominant themes from September and October: distressed selling, deleveraging and redemptions among hedge funds, heightened volatility and an increasing disconnect between asset prices and underlying fundamentals, ...
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Features
Looking ahead to recession
Yield curve/duration The US economy slid into recession in December 2007, says the National Bureau of Economic Research. As we start 2009 the extreme pain being felt in both the jobs and the housing markets is not easing; figures from the Mortgage Bankers Association suggest that in Q3 2008 one ...
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FeaturesAn upbeat Christmas carol
In A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens describes his most famous character as follows: “External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge. No warmth could warm, no wintry weather chill him. No wind that blew was bitterer than he, no falling snow was more intent upon its purpose, no pelting ...
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FeaturesPensions portability: Where are we now?
Not quite a dead parrot, it will take a lot longer to get the EU’s pension portability directive back to life, says Gail Moss
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FeaturesInnovation: Used, misused and abused
In the third in a series of articles on a new report, Amin Rajan laments that alpha has been everywhere except in performance numbers
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FeaturesViews on the year to come
We asked ten CIOs and other senior figures at international assset management firms: ‘Where will investment opportunities lie in 2009?’
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Special ReportGet the risks right
Tony Freeman addresses the increasing importance of operational issues for asset managers
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FeaturesA Christian institutional investor
A year ago the Church of Sweden implemented a new investment policy which includes a more sophisticated, layered approach to its ethical investing. Brendan Maton spoke with CIO Anders Thorendal
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FeaturesBanks hit the ‘sweet spot’
Unglamorous unleveraged bank loans are suddenly de rigueur for the long-term investor. David White investigates
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InterviewsChallenges and opportunities ahead
IPE asked three pension funds: ‘What challenges and opportunities will you face in 2009?’
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Special ReportA guide to counterparty risk
Mark Petit and Jeroen van der Hoek of Cardano explain the nature of counterparty risk in some of the most common over the counter (OTC) transactions and discuss how investors in OTC markets have fared in these testing times
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Special Report
NPRF separates commodity risks
The default of swaps provider Lehman Brothers in October 2008 sent shockwaves through the investment community and made some investors re-examine their commodity swaps positions. One of those affected was Ireland’s National Pensions Reserve Fund (NPRF). With a benchmark allocation of 2% to commodities and forestry, it currently has all ...
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Features
BVK keeps long and short strategy
The pension fund of the Canton of Zurich (BVK) has been investing in commodities since August 2006 when it decided to allocate 4% of its portfolio to commodities. Its strategic exposure consists of seven individual commodity investments in three sub-categories. At end-June 2008 a collateralised commodity index note accounted ...
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IP Asia
Crunch will change the landscape for investors
Richard’s leader article, written in the teeth of the worst period for world markets in 70 years.
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Special ReportLong on intentions but short on deliverables
In the first of a series of articles on a new study, Amin Rajan argues that Europe’s pension landscape is not fit for purpose post the credit crisis
