All IPE articles in November 2015 (Magazine) – Page 4
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Features
German Discount Rates: Biases in pension discounting
In common with many countries, falling interest rates have hit German companies and pension funds significantly by increasing their discounted liabilities.
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Features
High-Yield Bonds: Uncharted waters
Is the sell-off in high-yield bonds an indicator of broader weakness, or an opportunity for contrarians to pick up yield?
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Special ReportBronze: Fixed Income - Bosch Pensionsfonds
Judge’s comment: “Innovative fixed income strategy given the fund’s objectives and the market it operates in, with a good level of diversification.”
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from Brussels: Focus on low returns
Dismally low returns on EU pension fund investments over 15 years? The allegation comes in a study by Better Finance, the European Federation of Investors & Financial Services Users. The report, Pensions Savings: The Real Return, points to excessive fees, points to other charges, and badly framed taxation rules, as the culprits.
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Features
Resist the bubble temptation
It is a safe bet that another financial crisis will be along soon. No doubt that is not something that investment and pensions professionals want to dwell on but it needs to be faced.
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Asset Class Reports
Call of the frontier markets
Frontier markets can offer huge attractions but investors need to pay attention to country backdrops and economic effects. Joseph Mariathasan reports
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Features
Capital Markets Union: A single market for capital
Pledging to “knock down barriers” and let capital flow freely across the European Union, Jonathan Hill, commissioner for financial stability, announced in September how he would achieve the European Commission’s pledge for a Capital Markets Union (CMU).
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Features
UK Local Government Pension Scheme: The only certainty is change
After years of uncertainty, UK chancellor of the exchequer George Osborne has signalled his desire for radical structural change among the UK’s local authority pension funds.
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Special Report
Financial Markets: Europe still courting China
European financial centres are still keen to court China despite the country’s economic slowdown and recent market meltdown. Lynn Strongin Dodds reports
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Interviews
On the Record: Do you invest in clean energy infrastructure?
We ask three pension funds - AP3, Kommunal Landspensjonskasse and Strathclyde Pension Fund - about their exposure to clean energy investments.
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Special Report
Special Report: Currency - A dangerously underrated risk
Anthony Harrington finds that investors can easily overlook the foreign exchange risk that comes with investing outside of their own currency area
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Special ReportDC/Hybrid Strategy - NEST
Judge’s comment: “NEST remains at the forefront of the defined contribution market in Europe with its innovative strategies and, predominantly, its risk approach.”
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Features
Finland: Funds defend investment stance
Finnish pension funds Valtion Eläkerahasto (VER) and Ilmarinen have defended their levels of investment in the local economy in the face of concerns that Finnish institutions are becoming less able to invest in domestic equities.
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Country Report
Nordic Region: Denmark - Pension funds transfer season
Danish pension providers have been vying for top talent in a bid to secure the best returns in the current low-interest-rate environment.
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Features
Diary of an Investor: Independent spirit
My friends at BIG Asset Management are here for one of their regular client visits. At Wasserdicht we don’t do lunches and the format is the traditional Dutch one, with rolls and buttermilk.
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Asset Class ReportsEmerging & frontier market equities – A recurring upbeat record
Despite the volatility currently affecting emerging market equities at the moment, emerging markets have suffered periods of volatility in the past followed by rapid recoveries.
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Opinion Pieces
Guest Viewpoint: Mark Fawcett - National Employment Savings Trust (UK)
It is early days for the UK’s new pension regime under which DC savers no longer have to buy an annuity. However, there are already lessons to be learned from the reforms.
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FeaturesFrom our perspective: Numerical expectations
What’s in a number? Quite a lot can rest on the choice of a single figure when it represents a pension fund’s long-term return assumptions. Much rides on these assumptions, which affect current and future contribution rates. There is a great deal to lose if the balance between current and future generations gets out of kilter.
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from the US: Lower expectations
Most US state retirement systems are cutting their investment return predictions. But this is still not enough, according to critics, and a minority of public pension funds are retaining optimistic assumptions and aggressive strategies.
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Features
The perils and promise of financial repression
In this first article in a series on a new survey, Pascal Blanqué and Amin Rajan argue that quantitative easing leaves pension plans at the wrong end of an arbitrary redistribution of wealth
