All articles by Martin Hurst – Page 4
-
Features
Don't bank on it
Portugal’s pensions landscape is subject to a two-tier domination by the main banks which provide their clients with a range of financial services, including pension management. According to figures from APFIPP, the Portuguese Association of Investment Funds, Pension Funds and Asset Managers, the Pension Funds market consists of around E14.9bn. ...
-
News
Portuguese pension stimulus gets go-ahead
PORTUGAL -- Tax incentives on employee contributions to defined contribution occupational pension schemes will be reintroduced.
-
Features
Ringing tone of success
As the bulk of the Greek pension system was mired in mismanagement and overregulation, the country’s incumbent telecoms operator, OTE, has stood out as a beacon of success with a cumulative return since the OTE pension fund started investing in 2002 of 26.37% with returns of 10% in 2003, last ...
-
Special Report
Price of taking responsibility
Environmental considerations are set to play an increasingly significant role in investment policy following two major new developments earlier this year. The Kyoto Protocol became a legally binding treaty in February. It aims to slow down global warming by demanding cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by an average of 5.2% ...
-
Features
Maltese resurrection
After many years of an exclusively state operated pension system in Malta the occupational scheme seems to be set for a comeback. Company schemes existed in until 1979 but these were replaced by state provision when the government of the day decided that state provision should be good enough for ...
-
Features
Herculean efforts required
Greece’s highly successful Olympic Games - coming hot on the heels of its unexpected triumph in the Euro 2004 football championships - seemed to do much to lift it out of its reputation as a rather lumbering, chaotic nation best known for its Mediterranean climate, cuisine, music and dancing, and ...
-
Special Report
Digging up the dirt
Today extractive companies - those specialised in extracting natural resources from the ground - are operating in environments that are very different to those in which they operated 10 or more years ago. The oil industry is a good example. As oil reserves in areas such as the North Sea ...
-
Features
Cyprus' hints of progress
Of the 334,000 people registered with Cyprus’ first pillar social security system around 142,500 have some form of additional pension provision. Some 30,000 of these are employees of central government who benefit from a pay-as-you-go system. The rest are covered by some form of funded or part-funded scheme. Among them ...
-
Features
Capitalising on progress
France’s system of universal retirement provision dates back to the years immediately following the second world war. The role of the compulsory pay-as-you go (répartition) element has long been significant and is in line with the strong Gallic preference for the social model. This preference dates back even further – ...
-
Features
Greek asset law expected soon
New legislation due to be passed in Greece later this year is expected to create an open institutional market worth around €33bn to asset managers within three to five years, according to Haris Makkas, CEO of ING Piraeus Asset Management in Athens. There are around €23bn of assets under management, ...
-
News
Portuguese occupational schemes face tax boost
PORTUGAL – Defined contribution occupational pension schemes are likely to receive a boost through the reintroduction of tax incentives on employee contributions next year.
-
News
GES launches new client interface
EUROPE -- Stockholm-based SRI analysis house GES Investment Services is to launching a web-based extension to its active engagement service that will enable its institutional investor clients to become more involved in the engagement process.
-
News
Fledgling Greek market set for kickstart
GREECE - New legislation due to be passed in Greece later this year is expected to create an open institutional market worth around E33bn to asset managers within three to five years, according to Haris Makkas, CEO of ING Piraeus Asset Management in Athens.
-
Special Report
Hope for German SRI?
The rather lacklustre progress of SRI in Germany’s institutional investment market was given a boost in July when the Bundesrat, the country’s upper house, passed legislation extending the SRI reporting obligation for Pensionfonds to the much more numerous and asset-rich Pensionskassen. The reporting obligation that requires funds to disclose whether ...
-
Features
Vital match point in France
The French have got used to relying on a relatively generous pay-as-you-go system of retirement provision but, as in other countries, this has become increasingly pressured by demographic trends and the limitations of the public purse so new solutions had to be found. Saving for retirement is a new concept ...
-
Features
Going with the flow
When we think of Switzerland it is easy to become carried away with one central theme: liquid. Glaciers giving way to babbling alpine streams and pristine lakes; sturdy mountain cattle providing the abundant milk that flows into some of the world’s best chocolate and cheeses; the cheeses make us think ...
-
Features
Cover ratios bite
The challenges facing some of Switzerland’s largest pension funds on the investment front vary greatly given widely differing coverage ratios. The Civil Service Insurance Fund for the Canton of Zurich (BVK) is at one end of the spectrum with a coverage ratio at end-July of 95%. Though up sharply on ...
-
Special Report
Versiko's 'passionate' team
Opportunities in the German SRI market vary, depending on one’s focus. Pensionkassen and other forms of retirement institution with deficits and minimum return guarantees on their minds are wary enough of equities as a whole, never mind new concepts which may appear at first sight to compromise the all important ...
-
Features
Widening the net
Unpasteurised cheeses are becoming ever more popular in the UK on account of their more complex flavour – a flavour which becomes still more complex as the cheese matures. The sophistication of tastes is presenting new challenges - and thereby opportunities - to many a UK cheese manufacturer. Especially the ...
