Latest from IPE Magazine – Page 577
-
Features
Stalemate in Prague
The works of Czech 20th century literary giants Franz Kafka, Good Soldier Svejk author Jaroslav Hasek and Vaclav Havel come to mind as one watches the country grapple with the question of pension reform. While the Czech Republic emerged from its kafkaesque period with the fall of the Berlin Wall ...
-
Features
Great hope of British pensions
It’s very difficult to find anybody to say a bad thing about Adair Turner. The former head of the industry group the Confederation of British Industry, who now heads the UK’s Pension Commission, has a lot of fans. Turner has a blue-chip background in public policy, academia and the financial ...
-
Features
Aiming to go paperless
Swiss pension funds see technology primarily as a way of improving the efficiency of their business. Document imaging systems are enabling some funds to become paperless operations, while others are installing systems that will improve automation, lower the costs of investing and provide quicker, more accurate and comprehensive information. For ...
-
Features
RBC ousts SocGen in R&M custody survey
RBC Global Services has knocked Société Générale from the top in a widely-watched survey of global custodians organised by R&M Consultants. RBC, second last year, forced last year’s leader into second place. Mellon Group came in third, from seventh – ousting Pictet, which has slipped to fifth. One of the ...
-
Features
Wealth market lure
One of the fastest growing and most profitable segments within financial services, the wealth management marketplace is also highly competitive and fragmented, with independent research showing that no single provider holds more than 2% of the wealth market. Indeed, the top 20 providers globally represent only 12% of financial assets ...
-
Special Report
Mark of excellence
In January Brussels-based Independent SRI and CSR advisory and research organisation Ethibel launched its new ‘excellence’ certification in an attempt to appeal directly to institutional investors. This, coming hot on the heels of the new disclosure law on SRI for pension funds, will give a boost to Belgium’s SRI market, ...
-
Special Report
Directors behaving badly
PIRC, a UK-based provider of corporate governance, proxy voting and corporate social responsibility investment research has accused the UK government of complacency on the issue of directors’ pay and consultants Deloitte & Touche of being too soft in its report on the subject. PIRC published its latest set of shareholder ...
-
Features
Shaping tomorrow's hedge funds
The writer Mark Twain memorably pronounced that reports of his death were greatly exaggerated. Today he could be suggesting a similar sentiment about hedge funds. Overall trends suggest hedge funds are here to stay. Consider that the average hedge fund had its 17th consecutive positive year in 2004, showing a ...
-
Features
Finding a niche idea
Few European asset managers can boast the pedigree of the Swiss investment manager Pictet Asset Management. Pictet is the affiliate of banking group Pictet & Cie, one of the oldest private banks in Switzerland and currently celebrating 200 years in the money management business. Age brings wisdom, and one of ...
-
Features
Funds: bouncing back
Alarm bells about the impending pension crisis seem to have faded away. US corporate and public pension funds have achieved good returns in 2004. If assets returns continue to perform in line with historical norms, and interest rates return to more normal levels, the funding pressures should ease, according to ...
-
Features
Managers: focus on return
Last year US pension funds’ median return was 11.7% for corporate and 12.5% for public funds, according to Russell Mellon universes performance data – a good result. But it is the legacy of the past five years that has done the damage, with annual returns averaging just 3.6% for corporate ...
-
Features
Retirement programmes: extreme makeover
With his mandate re-affirmed, Bush has prioritised two ambitious goals within the ‘ownership society’ – privatising social security and revamping the private pension system. Such boldness is not rhetorical: Bush’s previous term demonstrated a commitment to his fundamental agenda. The President has not previously shied from audacity; having been re-elected, ...
-
Features
Only one strategy makes it
As can be seen from table 1, all hedge fund strategies fell short of their long-term average performance in January. Three out of five strategies even posted negative returns. These poor results, which are in sharp contrast to the good performance of Q4 2004, were mainly due to an unfavourable ...
-
Features
Sophisticated Finns reap returns
In investment terms, Finland forms part of the Nordic region. As such, therefore, it is one of the most sophisticated European countries in relation to the private equity market.Finland invested 0.307% of its GDP in private equity in 2003, the last year for which figures are available from the European ...
-
Features
Commodities 'bull market'
The only place where there is currently a pure bull market is in commodities, investment guru Jim Rogers told the SuperHedge conference in Frankfurt last month. Allaying investor fears that commodities are dangerous, the author of bestselling books ‘Hot Commodities’ and ‘Adventure Capitalist’ pointed out that economic history shows there ...
-
Features
Aligning assets with liabilities
Investment managers have been quicker than government to respond to the liability matching needs of UK pension funds. Before the UK government had announced plans for 50-year bonds, two leading European fund managers had rolled out solutions of their own. Both solutions tackle the shortage of suitable pooled liability matching ...
