Asset Allocation – Page 175
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Features
Revolution at the top
Europe’s largest pension fund, the mighty ABP has turned its approach to investment inside out. The equity portion of the E170bn portfolio that was 75% externally managed just three years ago, is now two-thirds internally managed. The 45% that was on an indexed basis has fallen to zero – the ...
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Open market regime
A complete opening of the German market as a financial centre for hedge funds (which are now regulated by the German Investment Act (Investmentgesetz)) would not have been possible without modifying framework conditions for investments made by insurance companies, which form by far the largest group of institutional investors. Currently, ...
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A perplexing market
In 1853 a small fleet of five black US navy ships led by USS Powhatan and commanded by Commodore Matthew Perry, anchored at Tokyo Bay and opened up Japan to international trade after 250 years of isolation. A combination of diplomatic finesse backed up by gunboats had transformed the attitudes ...
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Making a splash in pension pooling
There is an increasing amount of interest in the establishment of pension pooling vehicles by multinational organisations seeking to combine their international or European pension investments in a single global or single regional fund. The pooling of pension assets in a single vehicle is an attractive concept as it generates ...
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Multinationals try to hold the line
Multinational companies based in the Netherlands are re-evaluating how much control they need to impose on their different pension plans around the world in light of ballooning costs and liabilities. But despite this increasingly close attention to their international liabilities and scheme designs – and the impact this is having ...
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Risk, return and pension funds
When it comes to economic policy, there is much to criticise about the centre-left government of German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. Despite an unemployment rate not seen since the 1930s – namely around 5m – Schröder’s government is still not doing enough to make Germany’s labour market more flexible. Schröder’s government ...
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Interest rate risk matching for pension funds
New regulations such as IFRS require pension funds to bring their interest-rate risk more in line with the interest-rate risk of their liabilities. This usually means that the duration of the fixed-income portfolio needs to be extended or the allocation to fixed-income investments increased. The latter would mean that there ...
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Fund with know-how
The way corporate pension funds are managed will change with changes in the corporations that sponsor them. Few organisations demonstrate this better than DSM Pensions Services (DPS), the in-house organisation that manages the Dutch pension funds of the Dutch firm DSM, the former Dutch state mines. The company was once ...
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Lessons for Europe
In 1981 Chile adopted a new pension system that has set a controversial pattern around the world. Unlike traditional systems, benefits are financed by investment accounts owned by workers. Chileans are sensitive about the starting point of their system, under Pinochet. But they do not worry about whether their system ...
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Features
Marketplace of discontents
As wary German investors emerge from the double-trauma of mistimed investments and stockmarket turmoil and decide how to move forward when their traditional haven of fixed income lies barren with yields at record lows, a well-meaning regulator is doing more harm than good. As in other walks of life, being ...
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Features
There is no pensions crisis - official
There is no pensions crisis. That is the assertion of new VB chairman Benne van Popta. “New schemes are still being established. And it’s very questionable that youngsters aren’t interested in solidarity and collectivity. A recent survey among 3,000 young people has shown that three-quarters of them want to save ...
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Right at the core
The number of European pension funds employing core satellite strategies has grown steadily. Research suggests that only 5% of pension funds were using core-satellite strategies in 1995. This had risen to 15% in 2000 and is likely to have more than doubled since the. The attraction of core satellite is ...
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Features
Search for consensus
Norway’s parliament hopes to reach a consensus on the main principles of a reform of the pension system by 19 May. The discussions follow the release of a government white paper in December which was based on the findings of a commission chaired by former finance minister Sigbjørn Johnsen that ...
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Features
Who's for commodities
Well, what is an investment in commodities? Why does it seem to be flavour of the month? Certainly, if it is an investment in say the Goldman Sachs Commodities Index it is not necessarily an investment in commodity Prices. When looking at a commodity index investment one must look at ...
