Latest from IPE Magazine – Page 554
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Features
For FTK read PVK
The Dutch authorities’ decision in September to delay the FTK for pension funds by a year, while broadly expected, was still significant. The central bank said that the new Financial Assessment Framework (nFTK) would not be compulsory for pension funds until 1 January 2007. The decision followed consultation with the ...
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Special Report
US voting demands
A group of 14 institutional investors from the UK, Netherlands, Australia and Canada have called for an overhaul of the American voting standard regarding the election of US corporate directors. They say it is “prone to abuse” and “inconsistent” with democratic values. In a letter addressed to the American Bar ...
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Features
Risk sharing on agenda
Pension fund deficits and international accounting pressures are encouraging employers in some European countries to move from defined benefit (DB) pension plans to defined contribution (DC). The effect is to shift the financial risk of the pension from the employer to the individual employee. So can pensions be designed to ...
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Features
Celebrations on hold
Despite a more than 6% return in the first half, Swiss pension funds have no reason to celebrate due to low bond yields, says the Swiss pension fund association ASIP. Zurich-based ASIP and consulting firm Watson Wyatt reported a 6.2% return for the first six months – driven by strong ...
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Special Report
Model for governance?
IPE asked three pension funds in three countries - in Austria, the Netherlands and Finland - the same question: ‘Is there or should there be a basic European template that could be adopted for pension fund governance or should it be left to national practice?’ Here are their answers: ...
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Features
Lobbying with Chinese chacteristics
The Chinese authorities are pressing ahead with the implementation of a pension reform that is intended to build a sustainable system for all employees, according to Wang Dongjin, vice-minister of labour and social security. The reforms are part of the transformation of communist China’s economy and society that began in ...
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Features
Trying to get some space
During the campaign for February’s general election the then-opposition Socialist Party (PS) promised to cut taxes, raise public sector wages and increase pensions. The governing right-of-centre Social Democrat Party (PSD) was offering fiscal stringency. For a majority of the electorate the choice seemed obvious, and PS leader José Sócrates emerged ...
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Features
Message in a bottle
The spectre of regulation, interference by Europe’s political classes and the perils of industry complacency joined those hardy perennials standards and market practice at the top of the agenda at Sibos – the annual payments and securities processing jamboree organised by messaging co-operative SWIFT, held this year in Copenhagen. Although ...
