All articles by Martin Hurst – Page 10
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Features
Church fund guided by divine prudence
One of the main Pensionskassen in Germany is Berlin-based VERKA which was founded in 1924 by the Evangelical Church and today provides pensions for all of the country’s church employees. According to figures published by the German regulator BAFin, VERKA’s asset total of just over E1.5bn at the end of ...
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Features
Doubts dispersing
While considerable slack remains in the Japanese economy, there are also strong signs of sustainable recovery as years of corporate restructuring start to pay dividends. So first the bad news: in its most recent monthly Report of Recent Economic Developments published in February, the Bank of Japan (BOJ) commented that ...
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Features
Feathering their own nests?
Germany’s 603 Abgeordneten (members of parliament or MdBs) preside over a nation dejected at the prospect of the gradual erosion of their statutory pension system. Some observers suggest that the generosity of the MdBs’ pension scheme simply adds insult to injury. Currently the monthly salary for an MdB is E7,009. ...
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News
Finland takes legal steps on ECJ Danner pensions ruling
Finland’s Ministry of Finance will shortly submit to parliament legislation to bring the law governing the taxation of third pillar schemes into line with the recent EU ruling on the Danner case.
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News
PWC says UK trustees lack governance aims
UK - PricewaterhouseCoopers says 85% of trustee boards of large UK pension schemes do not have individual governance objectives.
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News
Hungary records 30% annual pensions growth
Budapest-based Consultancy firm FI-AD Financial Advisory Ltd has published its report on institutional savings in Hungary for the fourth quarter of 2003.
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News
French reserve fund critical of some applications
FRANCE – The 16 billion-euro French pension reserve fund has made some critical comments about the standard of some asset managers’ applications for mandates.
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News
EFRP’s Pickering queries trustee training
EUROPE – The chairman of the European Federation for Retirement Provision, Alan Pickering, has queried the value of trustee training.
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Features
Too complicated for its own good
The German pension system is widely regarded as being one of Europe’s most complex. If that wasn’t bad enough, leading observers believe aspects of the reforms currently being discussed in Parliament simply don’t make sense. “The devil is in the detail,” says Peter Scherkamp, managing director of German pension consultants ...
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Features
How much further to go?
The UK equity market is likely to underperform its main rivals in 2004. The UK economy has weathered the storm relatively well and as such scope for large gains is limited. The UK equity market one of the most expensive equity markets in the world having participated in the rally ...
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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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News
Spanish pension funds return to growth
SPAIN - The total volume of assets managed by Spanish pension funds reached E55.5bn at the end of last year, representing an increase of 15% on the year.
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Features
British miss gravy train
The Parliamentary Contributory Pension Fund (PCPF) was first introduced to provide pension benefits for Members of Parliament (MPs) in 1965. The PCPF is a funded scheme which invests contributions from the exchequer and members. The Parliamentary Contributory Pension Fund (PCPF) has come in for considerable criticism, largely on account of ...
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Features
More optimistic than cautious
The outlook for US equities for the coming year is positive. According to Darrell Riley, vice president of T Rowe Price in Baltimore, “the consensus is that S&P index will increase by between 5 and 10% by the end of the year.” He adds: “what is priced into the market ...
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FeaturesHow the parliamentary pension scheme works
The pension scheme for Westminster MPs, the Parliamentary Contributory Pension Fund (PCPF) operates like most funded final salary arrangements by investing its members’ contributions and those from the Exchequer, which takes the place of an employer in an occupational scheme, in the financial markets.
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Features
Opening up trading accounts
To help professional investors, such as pension funds, hedge funds and insurers,who want to trade in options and futures, the former Amsterdam Exchanges (now Euronext Amsterdam) introduced professional clearing accounts (PCAs) a few years ago . This is an exclusive clearing facility for professional investors. These accounts allow professional investors ...
