Latest from IPE Magazine – Page 689
-
Features
Time to pay more for pensions
Occupational pension schemes are currently being buffeted by storms in the equity markets. In particular, companies providing defined benefit (DB) pensions, who enjoyed pension contribution holidays when stock markets were booming, are now faced with shortfalls in their pension fund assets. In the Netherlands, pensioners have set up lobby groups ...
-
Features
Equity exposure slow to grow
Although Danish pension funds some years ago began to diversify towards a greater exposure to equities, their portfolios remained bond-oriented. According to data from Nykredit Markets, the overall allocation of the pensions sector in Denmark at the end of June showed little change from that registered during the previous two ...
-
Features
Still loyal to the home market
The average pension fund in Finland invested 58% of total assets in Finnish bonds, according to data from Watson Wyatt at the end of 2000. The total exposure of pension fund portfolios to fixed income vehicles represented around 74% of total assets, with the proportion invested in bonds in the ...
-
Features
Discussions ahead
Pension reform in France became a key element in this year’s presidential election. The future of the French retirement system was intensively discussed by the social partners, and was one of the hot issues during the electoral campaign. Before the election, opposing candidates Jacques Chirac and Lionel Jospin publicly clashed ...
-
Features
Equities still take second place
Although the percentage of equities in French institutional portfolios has increased during the past few years, fixed income investments still attract the higher proportion of assets. According to figures from Watson Wyatt, at the end of 2000 French investors only allocated around 13% of total assets to equities and just ...
-
Features
Slow to start
The pension reform passed in Germany last year was a step in the right direction for the development of private pension provision, even though the market growth expected a year ago hasn’t yet materialised. Most blame the complicated regulatory framework as the main reason Germans have shown little interest in ...
-
Features
Bonds still predominate
According to data from Bad Homburg-based Feri Institutional Management, the way German pension funds invested at the end of last year didn’t differ too much from a year early. At the end of 2001 pension assets invested in equities represented 26% of the total, mainly allocated to investments in the ...
-
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 ...
-
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 ...
-
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 ...
-
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 ...
-
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 ...
-
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 ...
-
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 ...
