Latest from IPE Magazine – Page 625
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Features
Currency alpha
Active currency management is providing alpha, according to a new study by Russell/Mellon CAPS. The study showed that 87% of currency overlay accounts generated positive excess returns over the past five years. The percentage was even higher in US$ accounts where 93% of accounts produced positive returns. The Russell/Mellon CAPS ...
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Features
Europe needs you!
The problem facing European pension systems was articulated in surprisingly stark terms by a senior official at the European Commission at a meeting in Brussels recently. The issue was not couched in the regular Brussels-speak – indeed, it would be hard to have been more explicit. “We need more people,” ...
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Features
Not short on uncertainty
Now that we know who’s to be running against George W Bush in November’s US elections, that’s one less political uncertainty to have to factor in. There are, however, plenty of outstanding uncertainties to worry investors across the world. For fixed income investors, one of the key issues seems to ...
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Features
Japan's economy - turning a corner again
It is 15 years since Japan’s bubble burst and several nascent recoveries have fizzled out along the way and the economy has repeatedly dipped back onto recession. This time, however, things may at last be different. Growth surprises have, unusually for Japan, been to the upside and the GDP report ...
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Features
Europe still a runner
After a strong and sustained recovery in Euro-zone equities that started last year, asset managers are now asking how long has the recovery yet to run. The answer will depend to some extent on valuations. Are Euro-zone stocks still fairly valued or has the recovery made them too expensive? Catherine ...
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Features
Doubts dispersing
While considerable slack remains in the Japanese economy, there are also strong signs of sustainable recovery as years of corporate restructuring start to pay dividends. So first the bad news: in its most recent monthly Report of Recent Economic Developments published in February, the Bank of Japan (BOJ) commented that ...
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Features
Second half slowdown on cards
The economic recovery is broadening. The US and Asia remain the two engines while the Euroland is accelerating even if it is still lagging. Profit margins keep on rising in the US and Japan. It is bottoming in Euroland but some improvements are expected. So far, the profit cycle is ...
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Features
Market advances to continue
Equity and bond markets made further progress during February, as investors reflected upon an economic background that continues to provide a sufficiently mixed picture to enable both asset classes to prosper. Emerging markets, particularly in Asia and Eastern Europe once again showed some of the best returns in $ terms, ...
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Features
The Anglo-Saxon lesson
I was fascinated by reports of one of the more provocative talks given over the last few weeks was from a former chairman of the UK’s National Association of Pension Funds. Alan Pickering’s speech concerned the future of UK trustees. Given at a European Bond Conference in early April, Pickering, ...
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Features
Counting their blessings
The appetite of the Belgian dentist, Belgium’s archetypal retail investor, for capital guaranteed and minimum return products is legendary. To satisfy this investor, investment products must provide protection from downside risk. Now the country’s institutional investors are developing the same sort of appetite. Part of the reason for this is ...
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Features
Protecting portfolios from downside
Portfolio insurance enables investors to limit downside risk while allowing some participation in upside markets. There are a large number of methods of portfolio insurance. The most widely used one is the CPPI (Constant Proportion Portfolio Insurance) developed in the 1980s. The CPPI method allocates assets dynamically over time. The ...
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Features
Closed fund with open agenda
The story of the British Coal Staff Superannuation Scheme (BCSSS) is part of the story of the UK’s nationalised coal mining. The fund was created in 1947 as the industry came into public ownership to look after the staff including senior underground personnel, and became a closed fund in 1994, ...
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Features
French warm to new plans
When France underwent its major pension reforms last year, all eyes were on the big issue of public sector change - the hurdle on which French governments had stumbled badly in the past. That the government finally won its battle for actuarial equivalence between public and private sector pensions with ...
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Features
How the good times returned to Europe
Comparing performance returns between pension funds in different European countries is by no means an exact science. Indeed, comparing pension fund returns between two performance measurers in the same European country can be equally imprecise. Take Switzerland for example. Publishing its 2003 universe figures, performance measurement firm InterSec recorded that ...
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Features
It will be different this time
German investors are beginning to draw their breath again. Especially now that they think they know where the equity markets are, but the pain equities caused is not forgotten. The bolt hole of fixed income is where many investors bunkered down but this space could be growing increasingly uncomfortable on ...
