Latest from IPE Magazine – Page 519
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Features
Turning overtime into downtime
Ask asset managers doing business with German corporate pensions what they feel is driving the industry these days, and many will rattle off two acronyms: “CTAs and ZWKs”. No need to worry if these acronyms don’t ring a bell. No one outside of corporate pensions in Germany has a clue ...
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Features
Salary conversion under threat
To continue to safeguard German pension provision in the future, the general aim is to strengthen funded private and company pension schemes. In the field of company pensions, which in the past has been used fairly cautiously in Germany, the legislator has risen to the challenge by implementing significant changes ...
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Features
Nuclear option for IORP?
After a somewhat quiet period, the directive on occupational pension funds is now very much back on the agenda at Brussels. It may be hard to believe but it’s now almost two and a half years since the Institutions for Occupational Retirement Provision (IORP) directive passed into European legislation. Member ...
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Features
Caution is king
BVV is Germany’s largest Pensionskasse with total assets of €16.9bn at the end of 2004, according to data from the German regulator BaFin. Total assets were nearly three times their level in 1990 and also make BVV nearly three times the size of its nearest rival; BVV’s membership stood at ...
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Features
Europe on slow crawl upward
Yield curve/duration Yield curves have been adjusting to investor forecasts on what the European Central Bank (ECB) might do next. Whereas last month there was debate about whether there would be another rate hike in the first half of the year, the consensus is now swinging to the opinion that ...
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Features
Land of opportunity for custodians
With a large base of unfunded pension liabilities, global custodians view the German market as one ripe with opportunity. In the past few years, all of the main global custodians have entered the German market, despite an oversupply of local depot banks. “Depot bank and fund administration in Germany in ...
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Features
Porting alpha via hedge indices
To understand the concept, firstly ‘alpha’ has to be defined. Alpha is a return that is unsystematic and uncorrelated to a general market direction and risk, whereas beta is a systematic and market related return. The most important question is, what is ‘general market’? Do we only talk about overall ...
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Features
European convergence
Eastern European stock exchanges have soared ahead in the past few years. However, we believe that they still offer good long-term potential, thanks to the beneficial impact of European convergence. This does not only apply to the countries that joined the EU last year, but also future applicants and neighbouring ...
