All IPE articles in October 2001 (Magazine)
View all stories from this issue.
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Features
A well-constructed system
The Icelandic old age pension system is composed of a tax-financed public pension scheme and mandatory funded occupational pension schemes, mostly run by private pension funds governed jointly by the partners in the labour market. The public pension scheme pays a basic pension from the age of 67 and a ...
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Features
The year of the switchover
The national supplementary pension scheme, introduced in 1960, is from this year successively replaced by a new old age pensions system decided by the Riksdag in 1998. Those born in 1937 and earlier will receive a supplementary pension according to the old rules. Those born between 1938 and 1953 will ...
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Features
Wide-ranging review under way
In Finland, the provision of statutory employment pension cover in the private sector has been designated to private pension institutions. The types of competing pension institutions are pension foundations, pension funds and employment pension insurance companies. Additionally, the employment pension insurance companies compete with each other for clients. Objectives ...
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Features
Slightly overweight US
Pessimism about the outlook for the global economy have continuously increased in the past months and we now believe that the economic cycle will not trough before the first quarter 2002. We also expect the global recovery to be more shallow than previously thought and to start from a deeper ...
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Features
Opening up the second pillar
Belgian retirement provision is structured around a three-pillar system. Pillar one is a ‘pay-as- you-go’ system organised by the government on the basis of social security contributions, also known as a repartition system. Pillar two consists of supplementary pension schemes organised on a collective basis by a company or group ...
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Features
Looking to outsiders
Pension funds in Europe have chosen to outsource their back office and IT activities for two main reasons. The first is that fund administration is often not a core activity. A pension plan’s primary task is the overall management of the plan. Specialised service providers can often run non-core activities ...
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Features
Modernising law on the way
The Dutch pension system is based on a three pillar system. The first pillar consists of a pay-as-you-go state pension (AOW) providing a flat rate benefit for all residents. The amount for a couple is 100% of the legal minimum wage (singles: 70%). Most workers are also entitled to a ...
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Features
Implementing strategy shifts
Looking at the practical implications for pension funds wanting to implement strategies in response, Nizam Hamid, director of portfolio and index research at Deutsche Bank, says the first issue for institutional investors in the current market conditions has been how to put effective hedges on existing positions. “A more important ...
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Features
Nowhere to hide
The recent terrorist attack and ensuing tragedy in New York have caused further deterioration of an already depressed equity market in Europe. “We are now certain that there will be a recession in the US which will have a direct knock-on effect on Eurozone markets,” says Peter Nethe, a strategist ...
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Features
Italian funds on manager trail
Fondo Pensione Complementare per la Famiglia (Fondo Famiglia), the Italian housewives’ and part time workers’ pension fund, which could potentially include as many as 15m members, has drawn up a shortlist of 12 asset management firms to take care of the fund’s assets. The successful companies will be revealed next ...
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Features
Public funds rally round the flag
Their efforts didn’t help the US Stock Exchange much, during the first week of resumed trading after the September 11 terrorist attack. But US pension funds did their best to try to stabilise the financial market at such a difficult moment. On September 14, for example, a group of US ...
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Features
Pensionsfonds - a new way of financing
Due to the deteriorating demographic situation and the high unemployment rate, the recent pension reform tries to ensure stability of medium- and long-term-costs by cutbacks in social security benefits. The net replacement ratio, which is net state pension to net active earnings prior to retirement, will be reduced from the ...
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Features
Institutional exposé
Institutional Investors by E P Davis & B Steil (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, and London, UK, 2001, pp524) Institutional investors have a much bigger influence over our lives than most of us realise. This follows from the rapid institutionalisation of our savings in recent times. Not so long ago ...
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Features
Event without precedent
In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington DC, the future direction of the US economy is shrouded in uncertainty. Though economic forecasting is tricky at the best of times, the unprecedented events of mid-September have left financial experts waiting for political, military and popular reactions ...
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Features
Europe's steady evolution
Three broad developments in European pensions are creating new business opportunities for third party fund administrators. The first is the move towards defined contribution (DC) schemes in countries like Italy and Germany. Germany’s first DC products, Pensionsfonds promoted by social security minister Walter Reister, are expected to produce a flow ...
