Asset Allocation – Page 151
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Features
It's going to be different this time
The Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) is expected to have some of the greatest impacts of all financial services legislation introduced in the last decade. It is scheduled for implementation on 1 November 2007 and is the successor to the 1993 Investment Service Directive, a key component of the ...
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Features
An idea whose time has come
As debate continues in the UK over the future of pensions, the proposal to found multiemployer ‘Super Trusts’ has many supporters. The National Association of Pension Fund’s idea for umbrella pension schemes under which many employers would shelter has many advantages – most obviously economies of scale. But how well ...
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Features
Saxony-Anhalt plans to launch pension fund for civ
The eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt plans to set up a pension fund for its civil servants from 2008, saying the move is necessary to relieve long-term pressure on its budget. Saxony-Anhalt employs around 2,600 civil servants who have a right to a future state pension. By 2020, it estimates ...
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Features
Challenges of running a pension fund in the Cypriot way
We are at the point where pension funds in Cyprus are trying to be move into a new era of more modern management under the European standards. It is a transition period from amateurism to more professional management of pension funds and that’s why the challenges of running such a ...
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Features
US managers face new challenges
“Never in 39 years in the industry have I known what our clients need more clearly than I do now,” says John Casey, chairman of Connecticut-based Casey, Quirk and Associates (CQA). “But how you do it is the question. We’re seeing a lot more urgency – the answers are not ...
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Features
Carrot or stick choice
The reforms of Germany’s pension system (the fundamental pension reform in 2001 (‘Riester pension reform’) and the Pension Sustainability Act and the Retirement Income Act which became operative in 2005), with a reduction of the state benefit level and an increased focus on occupational and private pensions, were a operations ...
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Features
Swiss schemes call for rules to be relaxed
Swiss occupational pension funds want investment regulations relaxed, according to a survey by Swisscanto Asset Management. “A large number of the pension institutions are in favour of a relaxation of the investment regulations,” Swisscanto said. The survey was conducted in association with ASIP, the Association of Swiss Pension Funds. It ...
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Features
Benign conditions boost Irish schemes
Benign conditions, including higher bond yields and strong equity and property markets, have boosted the health of Irish defined benefit pension schemes in the first quarter, according to Mercer Investment Consulting. According to Mercer estimates, average funding ratios have improved by between 10% and 15% from the end of 2005 ...
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Features
Dutch base 'superb' for management
The EU pension directive has opened the way for the Netherlands to become a superb operating base for asset management, says Dirk Witteveen, director of pensions regulator De Nederlandsche Bank. “The Netherlands have already a wide experience with the directive’s ‘prudent person’ approach of the investment rules. Pension fund are ...
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Special Report
Big European funds back UN investment principles
Some of Europe’s largest pension funds have signed up to the United Nations’ new set of six responsible investment principles. Signatories to the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), launched at the New York Stock Exchange, include national pension funds in Norway, Ireland, France, Sweden as well as names such as ...
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Features
German association fears for corporate pensions
Boy-Jürgen Andresen, chairman of German occupational pensions association Aba, has warned that the further development of corporate pensions in Germany is in peril unless the government prolongs a social tax exemption for defined contribution schemes. The social tax exemption for the DC schemes, created by the Riester reforms of 2001, ...
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Features
Busy doing not very much at all
When highlighting the merits of the profession of active manager, stock picking is often presented as the leading factor in the creation of value. After the downturn in the markets in 2000, benchmarked management was vilified in favour of investment management based on ‘convictions’ where small cap stocks, which had ...
