All Country Reports – Page 44
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Country Report
Italy: Mangusta Risk advocates pension funds spend more time on passive portfolios
Any adviser, large or small, would have seen an opportunity when the Italian pension market opened up less than 20 years ago, with the establishment of many new medium and large-sized pension schemes.
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Italy: Three sparks needed to ignite the Italian pensions market
State Street Global Advisor (SSGA) is one of the leading Italian institutional asset managers, managing €10bn of domestic institutional investors’ funds as of June 2013. It holds 13 mandates from closed pension schemes such as Cometa and Fonchim and 15 mandates from casse di previdenza, a sector where the Milan-based asset manager is the undisputed leader, giving the firm a broad view of the Italian institutional investment market. Marco Fusco, SSGA’s head of southern Europe outlined the three sparks he believes are needed to ignite the Italian market.
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Italy: Compulsory membership and education are key to improving pension system
Francesco Vallacqua is a research fellow of Center for Applied Research and Finance (CAREFIN) at Bocconi University of Milan. He has held positions as a consultant to governmental institutions and pension schemes, such as at Cometa, the fund for mechanical engineering industry workers, and is currently a board member of Espero, the teaching professionals’ fund.
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Italy: COVIP weathers the storms of Italian politics
Covip annual statement: In 2013 membership of private pension schemes increases, albeit slowly, at 5.3% adding 290,000 more members to the total 5.8m. Funds have grown between 8% and 9% in 2012, compared to 2.9% growth of the trattamento di fine rapporto.
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Italy: The recovery starts at home for Cometa as it seeks to stabilise its membership
At Cometa, the €7.3bn scheme for workers employed by the metal and mechanical engineering industries, the membership issue is more urgent. The scheme has about 427,000 members, less than half the one million potential members in the sector. The figure is unlikely to rise significantly in 2013 because of the condition of the sector, where factories are closing or laying off workers. So the scheme is focusing on keeping its current members.
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Switzerland: Rights and responsibilities
Nina Rohrbein analyses the consequences for Swiss pension funds, their advisers and asset managers of the referendum on executive pay
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Switzerland: Funds play catch-up
David Pauls and Peter Zanella argue that Swiss pension funds must keep up with underlying economic and demographic reality, and that policy makers should stop moving the goalposts
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Switzerland: Magic number crunching
Swiss pension funds have enjoyed a major recovery in the funding levels over the past months. But the fundamental problems remain, writes Barbara Ottawa
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Switzerland: New challenges for asset managers
Richard Bruyère presents the results of Image & Finance’s latest research covering the institutional market in Switzerland
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Switzerland: Smart on beta benchmarks
Swiss pension funds have mostly shied away from alternatively weighted benchmark strategies. Cécile Sourbes finds that adoption will depend on thorough analysis and transparency of data
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Switzerland: Cage fight against complacency
Some think the second pillar is perfect, so 17 years ago four people set out to challenge that view with an innovative approach and an international viewpoint. Innovation Zweite Säule co-founder Werner Nussbaum tells Barbara Ottawa about challenges past and present
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Turkey: Pensions growth ahead
Reform to channel severance payments to the workplace supplementary pensions would mean exponential growth for the Turkish pension sector, writes Reeta Paakkinen
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Turkey: Growth assets for the future
Pension providers are capitalising on recent liberalisation to launch gold and corporate bond funds, says Reeta Paakkinen
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Country Report
Turkey: Diversification prizes
Private pension asset growth will lead to opportunities for global custodians, according to Iain Morse
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Country Report
Nordic Region: A lone rider?
Is the closure of Swedish energy company Vattenfall’s pension foundation a one-off or the shape of things to come? Nina Röhrbein reports
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Nordic Region: Under one roof
By bringing asset management in-house, Skandia aims to bring new products to the market, says Pirkko Juntunen
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Nordic Region: Funds go global
Despite a positive 2012, the country’s pension funds are allocating more investments beyond the troubled borders of the euro-zone as they seek to improve returns, says Reeta Paakkinen
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Nordic Region: Corporates flying high
Corporate pension funds have consistently outperformed others in the pensions industry, and they want more freedom to set contributions, Pasi Strömberg tells Reeta Paakkinen
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Nordic Region: What one hand taketh…
Changes to discount rates will favour Norwegian pension sponsors, writes Rachel Fixsen. Yet the introduction of dynamic mortality tables will require an increase in reserves
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Country Report
France: Paving the way for responsible investment
The Fonds de Réserve pour les Retraites has undergone a radical strategy reshape following the 2010 pension reform and volatile equity markets in 2011. And 2013 will be action-packed, writes Cécile Sourbes
