Latest from IPE Magazine – Page 705
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Features
Market shaken by Merrill Lynch investigation
Merrill Lynch may be $100m poorer having reached an agreement with New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer but, in doing the deal, it has avoided the prospect of a forced separation of research and investment banking. Nevertheless, the scandal has run long enough to have a huge impact on the ...
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Features
Wary about transparency
More transparency is bad for pension funds? Apparently yes, according to the last survey made by Greenwich Associates among portfolio managers at more than 300 of the largest US-based institutions. The majority of them (53%) think that the financial market has changed for the worse with the introduction of Reg ...
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Features
Sensible first step
The report by the European Federation for Retirement Provision (EFRP) ‘Rebuilding Pensions’ attracted little publicity when it was published two years ago. However, there are now signs that the European Commission (EC) is paying serious attention to its proposals. Last year, in his communication on the elimination of tax obstacles ...
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Features
Why everyone wins with z-scores
The publication of the first performance test of the Dutch industrywide funds has put the spotlight on the Netherlands’ unique system of pension fund rating – known as the z-score. The test is an assessment of how funds have measured up to their investment strategies in the years since the ...
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Features
Norway issues vast $5.5bn equity RFPs
Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), overseer of the $75bn (E81bn) Norwegian petroleum fund, has announced a $5.5bn equities RFP with the initial tender process being run through the IPE-Quest electronic manager selection system. NBIM is looking to appoint new external active mandates in five different regions: Europe, UK, Japan, Australia ...
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Features
SwissAir names five sub-fund managers for e600m
SwissAir has announced the names of managers appointed to run e600m in five sub-funds belonging to the recently restructured pension scheme. The fund has appointed managers to five mandates, each valued at approximately e120m. Wellington has been appointed to run both an active US equities and an active European equities ...
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Features
Shifting the emphasis to the continent
A defining moment for Watsons, the UK’s oldest actuarial firm, and probably for international consultancy, was the alliance with the US-based Wyatt in 1995. “That was a big step in our history,” says Paul Thornton, the firm’s senior partner, based in Reigate. “Our end became Watson Wyatt Partners and in ...
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Features
One man one vote, but winner takes all
A number of currency managers use a variety of fundamental and technical inputs into their decisions on when to hedge currency risk. But, how can these sources of insight best be combined? Each factor could be given an equal share in determining the hedge ratio – one man, one vote ...
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Features
Always looking for more
Custody today is a commodity – or so the line goes. And with the number of providers in the market steadily diminishing and technology levelling the playing field, who’s going to argue? Talk to Europe’s pension funds, however, and the debate on the role of custodians becomes less clear-cut. How ...
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Features
Upstaging the locals
Continental Europe may be on the cusp of an investment revolution, but it seems increasingly questionable whether many of those banks that make up the (already much depleted) ranks of the region’s local custody providers will still be around to reap the coming bounty. In recent years only the UK ...
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Features
Technology turns the tables
Is big becoming a problem in the custodian world? This article explores the issues that big custodians are having to contend with in an environment of more rapid change and fierce competition. The catchword of the large custodian banks has traditionally been that size matters. To make money, develop technology ...
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Features
What's value added any more?
‘Value added’ has become a catchphrase in the global custody vocabulary. An all-embracing concept, it has been habitually applied to any service offered beyond the traditional core custody offerings of safekeeping and settlement. However, the concept of what adds value is coming under the microscope as pension funds and fund ...
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Features
Why tri-party repo
The case for investors conducting business on an increasingly secured or collateralised basis only appears to grow stronger and more compelling with each mounting crisis or default in the market. Earlier this year we had AIB and large FX losses. This was followed swiftly by the Enron default. Traditionally legislation ...
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Features
Europe still struggling
As the dust settles on the Deutsche Börse and Clearstream merger, the European clearing and settlement picture is no clearer. High costs and inefficient market practices still dominate and many institutions – particularly investment management firms – are struggling to implement straight-through processing (STP) solutions. Put simply, STP is a ...
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Features
NTMA names final seven managers
Ireland’s National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) has announced the final seven managers to run the unallocated E2bn of the National Pensions Reserve Fund’s E8bn in assets. Lord, Abbett & Co has been appointed to run a E410m portfolio of north American value equities. A similar-sized mandate for growth equities has ...
