Latest from IPE Magazine – Page 537
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Features
Towards a settlement
The media frenzy in the UK has moved on and now as the dust is starting to settle it will be up to pensions professionals and the government in the UK to fully absorb the recommendations of the Pensions Commission. There was a lot to take in - the final ...
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Features
Word on the street
Secretary of state for work and pensions John Hutton said it was an “important milestone towards a lasting pensions settlement”. “Put quite simply, we can not go on as we are. But it is also vital that we get reform right for future generations, and we are determined to reach ...
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Features
Unvarnished Farnish
The “good things” in Lord Turner’s report were welcomed by Christine Farnish, chief executive of the National Pensions Fund Association at the IPE MultiPensions conference in Amsterdam last month. “First of all he is saying the UK needs a simpler pension system. He is suggesting very fundamental reforms to the ...
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Features
Too open and too loose?
An argument between Age, the older people’s platform, and the European Commission is simmering over how effective the EU’s peer review system is, just as the EU’s executive body gets ready to publish a series of non-binding suggestions for how member states can step up pension reforms. Following the submission ...
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Features
What do funds have to lose?
The number of securities class action suits in American courts has been growing consistently, a fact that those foreign companies listed on US exchanges are well aware of. According to the Stanford University Securities Class Action Clearinghouse, there were 327 securities class action lawsuits filed in 2001, an increase of ...
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Features
Time to take back control
The UK local authority pension fund sector1 has changed enormously over the years and today is characterised by increasing oversight, market complexity and externally managed investment strategies. Once renowned for its in-house approach to investing, the sector has long since delegated active control over the investment process to consulting firms, ...
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Features
Virtual debate on challenges
November saw the first-ever IPe-Symposium, an online conference for the European pension industry. The topic for the free event was “The challenges in meeting Europe’s occupational pensions liabilities”. Some of the most senior figures in the field participated and some 668 delegates, from 46 countries, registered to participate - with ...
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Features
Go global or go local?
With pensions funding now top of the agenda for sponsors as well as trustees, many multinationals are keen to understand more about the schemes they back. Using a large international consultancy to get an overview can help them do this, and some companies are going down that route. But at ...
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Features
Keeping in with the rating agencies
For companies that depend on the bond markets for financing, the importance of their credit rating cannot be overstated. A satisfactory credit rating in this context means at least single A (the lowest ‘investment grade’ rating) but many issuers aim to achieve AA and a few are AAA. The choice ...
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Features
Corporates aware of 'financial risk'
Treasurers at UK companies may be aware of the call for matching assets to liabilities, but putting this into investment practice is another matter altogether. According to a survey by Mercer Human Resource Consulting, nearly half of treasurers and CFOs at British companies believed investors would prefer them to follow ...
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Features
De-risking the pension scheme
In recent years, corporate sponsors of pension schemes have found themselves in a constantly changing environment. Defined benefit pension commitments are now recognised as a major source of financial risk for most global businesses and companies realise that their credit ratings and their ability to finance themselves are likely to ...
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Features
Portability: benefit or burden?
In October 2005 the European Commission published a draft directive on the portability of occupational pension rights in the EU. (Like all other directives, the requirements would be considered minimum standards; member states could maintain or create more favourable conditions for employees.) The Commission has always promoted the freedom of ...
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Features
The power of pooling resources
This article is from January 2006. While the multinational pooling concept has been around for over 50 years, interest in this global funding mechanism remains as strong as ever. Having gone through periods of reduced priority for multinationals during the 1990s, the recent focus on global governance and Sarbanes-Oxley legislation ...
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Features
Region of myths and misinformation
Many of us had hoped that the emergence in Europe of common accounting standards for pensions (IAS19 or FRS17 in the UK) would have made pension transaction work easier for both buyers and sellers. In some respects it has, establishing a common frame of reference to measure deficits (surplus seems ...
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Features
Wearing an investor's hat
The pension deficits of the FTSE-100 companies calculated in accordance with FRS17 account for around 3% of the total market capitalisation of those companies. Within this there is huge variation with some constituents having pension deficits of more than 30% of their market capitalisation. Therefore, any equity investor should be ...
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Features
Where trustees are coming from
The structure of pension provision in the UK has changed dramatically over the past five years. New roles and responsibilities for sponsors and trustees and the transition to a principles based framework for decision taking, combined with a sharp reversal in the solvency of many pension schemes, have created tension ...
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Features
When captives set you free
Across Europe, companies have been struggling to contain or reduce costs. As the expense of employee benefits has skyrocketed over the last few years it is not surprising that companies have been taking a long, hard look at how to limit and reduce costs, manage risks and how best to ...
