Latest from IPE Magazine – Page 543
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Features
Still waiting for changes
The source of the major challenge for Portuguese pension funds is clear: it’s the state. But not in the way seen elsewhere in Europe, where governments place investment and other restrictions on pension funds. Rather it’s its all-encompassing presence in the pensions arena and the resulting universally held belief this ...
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Features
Comfort from derivatives
IPE asked three pension funds in three countries – Denmark, the Netherlands and Switzerland – the same question: ‘Do derivatives perform a useful function in pension fund portfolios or are too costly, complicated and risky?’ Here are their answers: Hasser Jørgensen, chief investment officer at Denmark’s PFA Pension which ...
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Features
Outsourcing maestro axed
The sudden removal of veteran executive Ramy Bourgi and head of securities Neil Henderson from their posts at JPMorgan Worldwide Securities Services (WSS) was perhaps inevitable following the long telegraphed collapse of the custodian’s flagship outsourcing arrangement with Schroders Investment Management. That said, given the retirement of Tom Swayne, head ...
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Special Report
Vive la différence?
One of the biggest challenges of an investor seeking to engage on matters of corporate governance is understanding and then working with the multiplicity of different corporate structures and share-owning cultures that exist around the world. Hermes Pensions Management, 100% owned by the BT Pension Fund, is just such an ...
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Features
Home is where the parent is
SEB Asset Management (SEB AM) threw a party for its staff earlier this year. The reason for the celebration was that the bi-annual Prospera survey had ranked SEB AM first among the 30 asset managers operating in Sweden. This put them ahead of international titans such as Goldman Sachs JP ...
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Features
More questions than answers
How deep will the changes to the pension accounting rules go? How will they affect companies’ financial strategies? Will they trigger the termination of defined benefit (DB) plans in the private sector? These are just a few of the questions haunting the US pension funds’ industry after the Financial Accounting ...
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Features
More challenges to come
If they haven’t already, many pension fund investment managers will shortly be considering how to position their funds to meet the challenges of the new year and it certainly looks as though the new year will produce just as many challenges as this year has. It does not look like ...
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Features
The man with star credentials
The phenomenon of US movie stars crossing the Atlantic to tread the boards on the London stage is now well established – and it looks like the same thing is now happening in the pensions and asset management field. The latest high profile transatlantic transplant is Mark Anson of CalPERS, ...
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Features
Benefiting from backlash
In the wake of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigation of potential conflicts of interest in consulting firms, small independent consultants are finding themselves in vogue – and they are determined to hold on to their position in the long term by proving that they offer superior service. Since ...
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Features
A minefield of diplomacy
Most industries are based upon relationships and the investment industry is no exception. But, unlike other industries, the investment community comes under close regulatory and media scrutiny for what are perceived as the inevitable conflicts of interest associated with a handful of investment banks dominating the industry. A number of ...
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Features
Chasing new rainbows?
In the last two years, investment banks have truly woken up to the fact that there is a vacuum in the investment product range offered to pension funds. Many houses have set up dedicated pensions groups, and all of them are vying for new business. Some are finding it harder ...
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Features
The new quasi-consultants
The specialist pensions groups at the investment banks have a lot to offer trustees. They can be a valuable source of expertise particularly when it comes to using complex financial instruments to solve the liability mismatches plaguing many funds. But just whose side are they on, and is their advice ...
