Latest from IPE Magazine – Page 631
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Features
The price of integrity
Levels of pay and benefits for members of the Oireachtas (Irish parliament) have increased dramatically over the last few years as it became clear that low salaries had their own cost, other than low morale: corruption. As of June last year the basic salary for TDs (members of the Irish ...
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Features
What the new laws allow
The Investmentmodernisierungsgesetz (InvModG – Act modernising investmentfund regulation) was set on its way in order to mirror the changes in the UCITS III Directive within the German investment law. This presented an opportunity that was taken, to replace the KAGG law in place since 1957 and the AIG law since ...
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Features
Common sense the touchstone
Hedge funds are on their way to become the next big thing in investment management. New funds start up every day, hedge funds are marketed aggressively to institutions and, under pressure to make up for recent losses, many institutional investors are showing serious interest. Many investors do not seem to ...
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Features
Warming up the punters
People climb mountains because they are there, but will German retirement savings funds use hedge funds just because a law makes it easier? For most institutional investors the idea of hedge funds is more interesting than actually using them at the moment. This is partly because the ability to invest ...
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Features
Clearing the hurdles
One hundred per cent allocation to hedge funds? This is not as silly as some may think. If an institutional investor were to simply put hedge fund return data into their asset liability model, 100% may well be the answer. The risk return characteristics of hedge funds are so attractive, ...
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Features
Still getting over the surprise
“Everyone was taken by surprise,” is the view from the German asset management association on the decision to reduce restrictions on hedge fund investment that came into force in January. This surprise was because on 6 February, 2002, Hans Eichel, German finance minister, had written in the Financial Times that ...
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Features
Turning on the taps
‘How to tackle Germany’ occupied much conversational space at recent conferences. The Investment Act and the Investment Tax Act, which came into force on 1 January this year, brought hedge funds onshore for the first time, enabling an investor base already familiar with hedge fund index certificates to have direct ...
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Features
Waiting for flight to quality
With a rise of 32% in the S&P500 from market lows it is fair to say that investor appetite for US equities has gone up since IPE’s last report on this market. But the overall market return figure disguises wide disparity in performance between sector, style and capitalisation bands. Whereas ...
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Features
Conservative in approach
Private pensions are still a young industry in central and east European (CEE) countries, but differing legislation has produced a range of investment strategies, reports a survey* produced by FI-AD Financial Advisory of Budapest. The survey, sponsored by East-West Management Institute of Vienna, used its own and the standard Organisation ...
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Special Report
Down with pension silos
Peter Drucker was in town recently. Well, at least electronically, as at a ripe 93 years of age, the world-renowned business philosopher doesn’t fly anymore. He was the final speaker in a series on ‘integrative thinking’ at the University of Toronto. Drucker observed that in both higher business education, and ...
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Features
Re-engineering of plans under way
How is it possible to cut pension costs yet at the same time to remain attractive to employees? This is the conundrum faced by American employers. There is no ‘sure’ answer. What is certain is that the great majority of US pension fund sponsors are changing their benefit strategy. According ...
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Features
Luxembourg plants its acorns
Almost five years ago, Luxembourg passed the legislation that created three new types of international pension vehicle. The Loi RCP of June 1999 enabled the creation of the Sepcav, an open-ended pension plan which operates like a DC plan in the US, and the Assep, which is similar to a ...
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Features
Nexans linked 'by principles'
Just over a century since the creation of the Société Française des Câbles Électriques (1897), a pioneer in the world of electric cables, the firm began the 21st century in a new incarnation as Nexans, following a spin off from the Alcatel group (where it was the Alcatel Cable arm) ...
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Features
Why networks pack with extra punch
As companies become increasingly global in their outlook, it makes sense to coordinate employee benefits programmes, taking into account custom and practice in each territory and utilising benefit practices such as global pooling and benchmarking. Which is how global consulting networks of actuarial and employee benefits professionals have a role ...
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Features
Coming into their own
International consultancies are gaining confidence in the German market. For years they have relied on joint ventures with the well-established local firms to get a foothold in the country. But now the larger global firms are stepping out on their own – sure that they have exactly what clients need ...
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Features
Keeping on top of technology
Most pension funds acknowledge the importance of technology to their business, whether they install applications in-house or outsource their requirements. However, technology is not a one-time decision like choosing an office or organisational logo. The questions then arise of how often a fund should review its technology, how it should ...
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Features
'All-weather' manager
Dexia Asset Management believes it is well down the road of being a major player on the European market. In just a few years and during one of the most cathartic periods ever in asset management, a group with formidable European credentials has been created, it claims. Following the acquisition ...
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Features
Actions on CAs at last
Automation, standardisation, harmonisation: these are not terms commonly associated with the vexed business of corporate actions processing. Efforts to improve levels of straight-through processing and the quality of reference data have been high on the industry’s agenda in recent years – except when it comes to corporate actions. Fraught with ...
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Features
Promised land draws nearer
State Street says it still has “work to do” on integrating the Global Securities Services business it bought a year ago – but insists the integration was going well. “We still have work to do in Europe, where client conversions are currently underway,” said chairman and chief executive David Spina. ...
