Latest from IPE Magazine – Page 706
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Features
The shape of things to come
The new shape of the Belgian pension fund industry is preoccupying Karel Stroobants, the former general manager of the VKG/CPM pension fund and just re-elected as president of the Belgian Pension Funds Association. “I want to do everything possible to put the new Belgian pensions law into place, once it ...
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Features
Integrale's long track record
Belgium has a long tradition of pension provision that has undergone many reforms through the years. Some players have been present in this market since its very early days, adapting themselves to the different social environments. Liège-based Integrale is one of them. Decades ago the way the Belgian state managed ...
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Features
Swedes mass migrate to DC
The transformation of the Swedish pension system since the mid 1990s is perhaps the most comprehensive endorsement of the defined contribution (DC) scheme in Europe. More than two million people have been moved into second pillar contribution-based plans in the space of five or six years. The first pillar has ...
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Features
Upsetting the apple cart
Defined contribution (DC) is poised to make a clean sweep of collectively agreed nationwide pension schemes in Sweden. One after the other, these schemes have become contribution-based. In 1996 the plan for blue collar workers in the private sector was changed from a defined benefit (DB) to DC scheme, known ...
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Features
'IKEA of pensions insurance'
The pension insurance society for Sweden’s central government employees, commonly known as Kåpan, is currently at the centre of a switch from DB to DC systems. Kåpan, whose official name is FSO, was started 10 years ago to provide pension insurance for 220,000 members of three leading trade unions. In ...
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Features
Minister involves ABA at highest level
The ABA, the German Occupational Pensions Association, has called on labour minister Walter Riester to defer his plans to scrap deferred compensation in 2008. Speaking at the association’s annual conference in Bonn, the chairman of the ABA Boy-Jürgen Andresen, said he would prefer to see the deferred compensation scheme, remain ...
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Features
Making pensions popular
Simplification was the topic firmly on the agenda at the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) annual conference in Brighton. “The pendulum has swung too far in favour of regulation and complexity”, Alistair Darling, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions told the conference. Hardly a day goes by without ...
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Features
'Jigsaw pieces in place'
If the European Court of Justice follows the opinion of the advocate general in the Danner v Finland case on pensions taxation, this would be the first attempt made to abolish all obstacle relating to pensions tax issues. This view was expressed by Leonardo Sforza of consultants Hewitt Associates at ...
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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 ...
