All IPE articles in October 2005 (Magazine) – Page 3

  • Features

    Custodians widen their embrace

    October 2005 (Magazine)

  • Features

    European custody's 'new faces'

    October 2005 (Magazine)

  • Features

    Cyprus' hints of progress

    October 2005 (Magazine)

    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

    Simulating DC outcomes

    October 2005 (Magazine)

    Defined contribution (DC) pension schemes are complicated financial products. However, they are ideal subjects for stochastic simulation methods1, and research on them has developed to the point where we now have the basis of a commercially feasible DC pension model2. This article begins by explaining the structure of this model. ...

  • Special Report

    US voting demands

    October 2005 (Magazine)

    A group of 14 institutional investors from the UK, Netherlands, Australia and Canada have called for an overhaul of the American voting standard regarding the election of US corporate directors. They say it is “prone to abuse” and “inconsistent” with democratic values. In a letter addressed to the American Bar ...

  • Features

    Devising an investable index

    October 2005 (Magazine)

    There has been a growing emphasis on pension fund liability management and creating a portfolio of assets to match these liabilities. The popular press has published several recommendations to protect pension fund solvency through the immunisation of liabilities. Recommendations have ranged from the approach of the Boots Pension fund, which ...

  • Special Report

    Digging up the dirt

    October 2005 (Magazine)

    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

    Moving in right direction

    October 2005 (Magazine)

    The Greek securities services market has in the past been something of a backwater. But recent market infrastructure and pensions reforms have given global custodians hope that there are good times ahead. Like many other countries in Europe, Greece is facing a growing pensions liability problem and the government has ...

  • Features

    Dutch want period of stability

    October 2005 (Magazine)

  • Features

    Herculean efforts required

    October 2005 (Magazine)

    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 ...

  • Features

    Private equity with style

    October 2005 (Magazine)

  • Features

    Europe opens up

    October 2005 (Magazine)

    The geographical spread of covered bonds across Europe is still widening, as more countries implement the necessary legislative frameworks permitting the issuance of covered bonds or, as in the UK or the Netherlands, products are structured to mimic the essential features of covered bonds. Within this growth are other developments. ...

  • Features

    For FTK read PVK

    October 2005 (Magazine)

    The Dutch authorities’ decision in September to delay the FTK for pension funds by a year, while broadly expected, was still significant. The central bank said that the new Financial Assessment Framework (nFTK) would not be compulsory for pension funds until 1 January 2007. The decision followed consultation with the ...

  • Features

    Greenhouse gases opportunity

    October 2005 (Magazine)

  • Features

    Trying to get some space

    October 2005 (Magazine)

    During the campaign for February’s general election the then-opposition Socialist Party (PS) promised to cut taxes, raise public sector wages and increase pensions. The governing right-of-centre Social Democrat Party (PSD) was offering fiscal stringency. For a majority of the electorate the choice seemed obvious, and PS leader José Sócrates emerged ...

  • Features

    Land of good intentions

    October 2005 (Magazine)

    Iceland has a population of only 300,000 and a GDP of €7bn. However, there are around 20 pension funds worth well over a hundred million euros, with the biggest ones worth more than a billion. But private equity as a pension fund asset is still in its early stages, though ...