All articles by Robert Melia Watson – Page 3
-
News
AFG-ASFFI urges French government to reform tax
FRANCE – The French asset management association, the Paris-based AFG-ASFFI, has called on the government to reform the tax system to encourage people to save more and to set up a new regulatory body to ensure the continued growth of the asset management and pensions industry in France.
-
News
Swiss fund CSIF alters investment strategy
SWITZERLAND – The SFr 17bn (€11.7bn) Civil Service Insurance Fund (CSIF) of the Swiss canton of Zurich has altered its investment strategy to halt a slide in the returns on its investments which fell to –7.1% in 2001. A spokesman for the fund says despite the changes, CSIF is still ...
-
News
S&P may downgrade companies with deficit pensions
UK- Rating agency Standard & Poor’s has announced it may begin downgrading the credit ratings of companies in Europe with pension funds that have large deficits. The action will particularly affect UK firms where the new accounting standard FRS17 is designed to reveal their pension scheme’s funding level at a ...
-
News
CSAM appoints Mellon for third party admin
UK – Credit Suisse Asset Management (CSAM) has appointed Mellon European Fund Services, the London-based fund administration arm of Mellon Financial Corporation, as third party administrator for the funds it acquired from Sun Life of Canada (SLC) last year. The funds are worth some £2.5bn (€4bn).
-
News
DeAM gives ten reasons to go out and buy equities
GLOBAL – Despite continued market weakness and investor caution, the time is right for investors to begin increasing their exposure to equities, says Deutsche Asset Management (DeAM)...
-
News
German pension 'time-bomb' blown out of proportion
GERMANY – Recent reports that the private sector in Germany faces a pensions time-bomb because of demographics and economic declines have been blown out of proportion according to a pensions spokeswoman for Morgan Stanley in Frankfurt.
-
News
Greek pensions burden may hit 25% of GDP by 2050
GREECE – Recent reforms to the pensions system is Greece are insufficient to avert a pension crisis that could see its state pension burden rise to 17.5% of GDP by 2025, the highest in the European Union, according to ratings agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P).
-
News
UK's largest DB funds show e40bn FRS17 deficit
UK – Under the new accounting standard FRS17, the UK’s largest defined benefit pension schemes had an aggregate deficit of some £25bn (€40bn) in July on a corresponding asset base of £200bn, according to a new report by the consultants Lane Clark & Peacock (LCP).
-
News
Gartmore hires Burvill to run UK equity income
UK – London-based investment management group, Gartmore, has appointed Chris Burvill as head and lead fund manager of UK equity income. He will report to Jon Thornton, head of UK equities.
-
News
Mercer says schemes need to monitor risk
UK/EUROPE – Investment and benefits consultancy firm, Mercer Human Resource Consulting, has welcomed the call for companies to give mid-year pension scheme funding levels and warns schemes should now begin to actively monitor and manage risk.
-
News
Fixed income ETFs due in Europe after US launch
EUROPE/US – The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) has issued the world’s first fixed income exchange traded funds (ETFs) but a spokeswoman for Morgan Stanley in London says foreign investors would do better to leave the four new funds alone.
-
News
ABP & PGGM curb stock-lending to combat volatility
NETHERLANDS – Dutch pension funds ABP and PGGM, which have combined assets of almost €200bn, have announced joint action to suspend all stock-lending activity for short-selling in order to help combat market volatility.
-
News
FIS names new expanded institutional team
UK – London-based asset management group, Friends Ivory & Sime (FIS), has announced its new enlarged institutional management team. Though there is no change to the company’s strategy, FIS hopes to penetrate the institutional insurance market as well as build on its institutional pension fund client base.
-
News
Watsons launches cross-border benefit tracker
GLOBAL – Reigate-based global consultancy firm, Watson Wyatt, has launched a new internet-based platform designed to allow companies to track and manage benefits, compensation, pensions and other financial data between business units and across countries.
-
News
Italian railway workers' scheme tenders RFP
ITALY – The €26m Eurofer, the fledgling supplementary pension scheme for Italy’s state railways industry workers, has issued an RFP for managers for its assets.
-
News
Frank Russell adds two to multi-manager complex
IRELAND/UK – Washington-based investment services firm, Frank Russell Company, has appointed two new managers to its150+ Dublin-domiciled multi-manager investment funds.
-
News
ITS supports OPAS call for trustee regulation
UK – Independent Trustee Services Ltd (ITS) has welcomed the call by the Occupational Pensions Advisory Service (OPAS) that some form of regulation should be introduced for pension fund trustees and the process surrounding the winding up of schemes within insolvent companies.
-
News
Large Europeans to pay for optimism on pensions
EUROPE- Companies across Europe may soon start having to inject large sums of money to support their pension funds, as assumptions about the rates of returns for their schemes is proving somewhat overly optimistic...
-
News
UK company pension funds levels at 87%, says HBW
UK – The average funding level of UK pension funds, as revealed under the new accounting standard, FRS17, is likely to have fallen to 87% since the beginning of the year, says Brian Wilson, a consultant at Hewitt, Bacon & Woodrow (HBW) .
-
News
Stamford hires Davies as fixed income specialist
UK – London-based independent consultancy firm, Stamford Associates, has appointed Nick Davies as a fixed income specialist to its research team.
