Returns – Page 184
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News
Swiss funds hit historic returns low
[16:40 CET 15-01] SWITZERLAND – Swiss Pensionskassen posted a negative return of 13% for the full year 2008, according to preliminary calculations for the Credit Suisse Pensionskassenindex.
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News
Gov't offers Eq Life apology but limits compensation
[16:15 CET 15-01] UK – The UK government has accepted charges of maladministration in some areas relating to the near collapse of Equitable Life, but has only agreed to set up a payment scheme for policyholders "disproportionately" affected by the event.
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News
Ilmarinen lost 17% in 2008
[15:30 CET 15-01] FINLAND – Ilmarinen Mutual Insurance Pension Company has reported an annual return on investments of -17.5% in 2008, but has warned it will not look to fill the gap by "panicking and selling shares".
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News
DSM scheme refrains from indexation
[16:00 CET 13-01] NETHERLANDS - PDN, the pension fund of chemicals giant DSM, has revealed it cannot grant its participants any indexation in 2009 as the scheme is underfunded.
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News
UK deficits hit £194bn in 2008
[16:30 CET 12-01] UK – Pension scheme funding was substantially worse in the UK last year than in 2007, the Pension Protection Fund has revealed, as aggregate deficits rose to over £194bn (€ by the end of December and the total assets valued within pension funds are thought to have ...
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News
Pharmacists’ pension prescribes 2% indexation
[15:45 CET 12-01] NETHERLANDS - The €1bn pension fund for pharmacies’ staff (PMA) has granted all its participants an indexation of 2% for 2009.
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NewsCEO-less Eureko taps shareholders
[16:30 CET 09-01] NETHERLANDS – Dutch insurance giant Eureko, whose chief executive stepped down earlier this month, has asked shareholders for capital to bolster solvency levels.
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NewsHalf of Swiss schemes underfunded
[16:00 CET 09-01] SWITZERLAND – The Swiss Federal Social Insurance Office has estimated that currently around half of all Swiss pension funds are underfunded.
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NewsIberia says no to BA pension fund top-up
[15:00 CET 09-01] SPAIN – Spanish carrier Iberia will not make any injection into the ailing British Airways (BA) pension fund if the companies' planned merger goes ahead, IPE has learnt.
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NewsM&S says trustees back pension curbs
[16:30 CET 07-01] UK – The trustees of the Marks & Spencer Final Salary Pension Scheme are “very supportive” of the decision announced today to curb benefits for the fund’s 21,000 members, company management says.
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News
KLM schemes split on indexation
[16:00 CET 07-01] NETHERLANDS – Two of the three pension funds of Dutch airline KLM will grant their participants a full indexation for 2009.
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News
Equity-biased UK authorities lose out – WM
UK - State Street’s WM pension fund estimates for 2008 have shown that schemes with a bias towards equities such as local authorities will be more affected by the market turmoil than their more bond-heavy corporate cousins.
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NewsUSS expects 15-year recovery from crisis
[16:23 CET 06-01] UK – The £26bn (€29.6bn) Universities Superannuation Scheme reckons it could it take up to 15 years to recover from the current financial crisis – and that there’s a “golden opportunity” to restructure its portfolio.
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NewsIrish pensions drop €27bn in 2008
IRELAND – Irish pension funds lost €27bn in 2008, following a final fall of 3.1% in December, Rubicon Investment Consulting has revealed.
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News
Philips pension fund sues Hewitt
UK – The trustees of the £2bn (€2.15bn) Philips Electronics UK pension fund have filed a lawsuit against consulting firm Hewitt Associates and one of its former top executives.
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News
Fifth of small schemes to cut UK equities in 2009
UK – More than 20% of the smallest firms offering defined benefit (DB) schemes plan to decrease their allocation to UK equities over the next year, research from the Association of Consulting Actuaries (ACA) has revealed.
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News
Ireland’s NPRF reviews strategy amid bank bailout
IRELAND – The National Pension Reserve Fund has acknowledged it will have to review its investment strategy in the light of a government bailout of the Irish banking sector.
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News
Dutch midwives get 2% indexation
[16:00 CET 05-01] NETHERLANDS - The €142m pension fund for midwives has granted its participants an indexation of 2% for 2009 despite a cover ratio of 101%
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FeaturesAn upbeat Christmas carol
In A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens describes his most famous character as follows: “External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge. No warmth could warm, no wintry weather chill him. No wind that blew was bitterer than he, no falling snow was more intent upon its purpose, no pelting ...
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Features
Negative streak continues
Hedge funds continued their negative streak for the sixth month in a row, falling 0.8% as November saw the continuation of several of the dominant themes from September and October: distressed selling, deleveraging and redemptions among hedge funds, heightened volatility and an increasing disconnect between asset prices and underlying fundamentals, ...
