Latest from IPE Magazine – Page 688
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Features
Looking out
In July, Iceland’s largest pension fund LSR appointed MFS Investment Management to run a segregated global equity mandate that will eventually be worth $100m. The e1.3bn pension fund for Icelandic civil servants, which invests around 20% of its assets overseas, has shown with this appointment its intentions to increase exposure ...
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Features
Housing takes a back seat
According to the National Association of Pension Funds, during the past decade the composition of Icelandic pension funds’ portfolios has changed significantly. Since 1990 the shares of lending for housing finance and direct lending for fund members have fallen, whereas the proportion of equity investing increased very significantly. Figures from ...
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Features
Into a new era
The long-awaited Irish Pension Bill was passed in March, establishing a new legal framework that includes the creation of Personal Retirement Savings Accounts (PRSAs), amendments to the occupational system and the introduction of a pensions ombudsman with power to investigate any complaints against occupational plans. The PRSAs, similar to the ...
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Features
Domestic holdings shrink
Irish pension funds invested around 65% of their assets in equities at the end of 2000, according to data from the Irish Association of Pension Funds (IAPF), which represents a similar percentage to that registered at the end of 1999. Regarding the geographical allocation of the equity investments, 19% were ...
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Features
Politics prevail
The development of the pension fund industry in Italy has been, once again, the centre of political discussion throughout this year. Changes in the labour market by the Berlusconi government and the on-going debate about the transfer into pension funds of the TFR, a lump sum workers receive when leaving ...
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Features
Conservatism shows in bond focus
Pension fund investors in Italy remain conservative, with only around 20% of total assets invested in equities. Focusing on the new closed-end pension funds, according to data from Covip, the industry’s supervisory board, at the end of 2001 75% of total assets were invested in fixed income vehicles. Italian bonds ...
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Features
Staying calm in adversity
Figures released in April by the Association of Industry-wide Pension Funds (VB) and the Company Pension Fund Organisation (OPF) showed that the average return for Dutch pension funds during 2001 was –2.8%, after average returns of 10% a year during the past decade. In just over a year, the average ...
