Latest from IPE Magazine – Page 514
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Features
Fascinated by formulas
What was your first full-time job – and do you remember what you were paid at the time? In 1961 I took what I intended to be a job during a school holiday at what turned out to be an actuarial bureau. I was paid 375 gilders (€170) per month. ...
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Features
Global liquidity under threat?
Yield curve/duration An uncomfortable unease is permeating all asset classes across all markets. What will the Fed chairman Bernanke do next? Go for more tightening to show the markets that he too is as tough on inflation as his hugely respected predecessor? Or will he wait, giving the US economy ...
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Features
Shunning the black box
Imagine you are at a cocktail party by Lake Geneva on a warm summer evening, perhaps in Lausanne or Montreux. And as you sip a drink and enjoy the view of the sun setting behind the mountains you are aware of an ambiance of good feeling, you see people networking ...
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Features
Devil is in FX detail
Direct and in many cases very significant financial benefit can accrue to pension funds and investment managers that pay closer attention to their foreign exchange (FX) trades. UK-based benchmarking firm Amaces has launched a new module in its CMS analytical and benchmarking service that covers all FX deals. The module ...
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Special Report
Breaking down the barriers
While investor portfolios become more global investor knowledge on what their rights are as shareholders and how to exercise them in the cross-border context struggles to keep up – to put it mildly. Cue the new handbook from the Eurosif, Active Share Ownership in Europe. Eurosif notes that “the publication ...
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Special Report
Strength in numbers
As the issue of corporate governance gains in importance so cooperation among shareholders on engagement issues has come to the fore as a vital tool in the management of pension fund portfolios. One prime example of this is the Netherlands. Michael Bruyn, director international client relations of Deminor highlights how ...
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Features
Burying heads in sand
The attitude to hedge funds among most UK pension funds never fails to amaze me. While happily (or at least willingly) accepting the volatility of equities, most trustees seem too frightened to make an investment in hedge funds, claiming that such an investment would be too risky despite the majority ...
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Features
When the state bows out
Latvia’s fledgling second pillar pension funds expect to receive a much-needed shot in the arm over the coming year if a plan to withdraw the State Treasury from the market is approved by parliament. “The State Treasury became involved in funded pensions because our pension reform was implemented in the ...
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Features
In a world of their own
Size matters when it comes to pension funds. The bigger the fund, the better value it can give scheme members, through economies of scale on the investment side. On the other hand, when a single pension fund has to cover an exceptionally broad geographical area, the costs can mount up. ...
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Features
Russia gets taste of market
Non-state (private) pension funds (NSPFs) consider September 1992 the birth date of the pension industry in Russia. At that time President Yeltsin signed a decree making it possible to set up the first funds. In legal terms they had to be socially oriented not-for-profit organisations. Then such a status was ...
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Features
Address the fundamentals
If you ask the question why invest in emerging market equities, the answer is pretty straightforward: emerging market economies are going to be a much more significant part of the global economy in the future and growth rates are generally higher than developed countries. Jim O’Neil at Goldman Sachs estimates ...
