All articles by Barbara Ottawa – Page 67
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NewsFormer head of Valais fund convicted
[14:00 CET 03-11] SWITZERLAND – Ignace Rey, the former head of the teacher’s pension fund for the Swiss canton of Valais (RVKL), has been convicted of a string of offences and sentenced to four years' imprisonment.
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Luzern finally secures recovery plan
[16:30 CET 02-11] SWITZERLAND – The CHF4.3bn (€2.85bn) Pensionskasse for the canton of Luzern will increase its members' retirement age and introduce additional contributions to the scheme, in a bid to get it back to full funding.
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Swiss returns now predicted to average 10.1%
[17:15 CEST 30-10] SWITZERLAND – Calculations conducted by Swisscanto suggest the average return achieved by Swiss Pensionskassen in the first nine months of this year hit 8.2%, but rival firm State Street has predicted the figure is more likely to be 10.11%.
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NewsDC schemes prevail among German execs
[13:00 CEST 29-10] GERMANY – Occupational pension plans are a fixed part of the remuneration for executives at German large companies, but evidence from consulting firm Mercer suggests most executives are now members of defined contribution (DC) schemes.
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NewsGermany sees its first full pensionsfonds transfer
[16:30 CEST 28-10] GERMANY – The German industrial services provider MAN Ferrostaal is transferring its pensionsfonds into the Allianz Pensionsfonds AG.
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NewsAustrian bodies call for 2nd pillar tax incentives
[16:20 CEST 28-10] AUSTRIA – The majority of companies would like to see more tax incentives to warrant the offering of an occupational pension scheme, a study by the Austrian economic research institute Wifo has found.
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Swiss pensions could be 131 days from fresh conversion
[16:30 CEST 27-10] SWITZERLAND – The Swiss government has confirmed a referendum will be held on 7 March 2010 and will include a question on the pensions conversion rate.
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DC plans need better design – actuaries
[15:45 CET 26-10] EUROPE – Defined contribution plans need risk mitigating features in order to banish their image as a “poor cousin” of defined benefit plans, attendees at the conference of the Groupe Consultatif, the European umbrella organisation of national actuarial associations, were told last week.
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Swiss pensions return to full funding
[15:45 CEST 22-10] SWITZERLAND – Swiss pensionskassen delivered an investment return of 9% for the first nine months of this year and recovering markets have helped bring funding levels of private funds back up to 100%, according to Swiss consultancy Lusenti.
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Switzerland sets indexation at 2.7%
[15:00 CEST 21-10] SWITZERLAND – All mandatory second pillar pensions paid out since 2006 will get a 2.7% indexation, the Swiss government has decided.
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Austrian study blames pension funds for the financial crisis
[16:15 CEST 20-10] AUSTRIA/GLOBAL – The growth of funded pension systems over the last decades has helped destabilise the equity markets, a new study commissioned by the Viennese Labour Chamber (AK Wien) concludes.
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Crisis forces Basel-Land to consider DC switch
[15:45 CEST 19-10] SWITZERLAND – The canton of the region of Basel is investigating whether to switch from a defined benefit scheme to a defined contribution plan for its CHF4.5bn (€3bn) public pension fund BLPK, in the wake of the recent crisis.
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Pension groups dread pan-European fund
[17:20 CEST 16-10] EUROPE – Creating a pan-European pension fund for mobile researchers would not be in the interest of the members of such a scheme, according to representatives at the conference of the European Association of Public Sector Pension Institutions (EAPSPI) in Berlin.
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Boutique forecasts a decade of low interest rates
[17:10 CEST 16-10] EUROPE - There will be no end to the US Federal Reserve’s low interest rate policy within the next few years, so returns from bonds and money market instruments will be insufficient to meet pension fund targets, according to Jens Ehrhardt, founder of multi-asset boutique DJE.
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Germany's BMF is critical of powerful EU supervisor
[16:45 CEST 14-10] GERMANY/EUROPE – The German Finance Ministry (BMF) is fearful that the European Commission's plans for a new supervisory structure will give pan-European bodies more influence over national retirement systems.
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Switzerland leaves minimum pension rate at 2%
[15:20 CEST 14-10] SWITZERLAND – The Swiss government set the minimum rate for second pillar pension funds at 2% for 2010.
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Germany's BDA wants risk-based pensions levy
[16:40 CEST 13-10] GERMANY – Switching to a risk-based levy for the German pension insolvency lifeboat Pensionssicherungsverein could help to considerably reduce contributions to the scheme in the long-run, according to Alexander Gunkel from the German federation of employer representatives.
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Erste creates AM umbrella and targets CEE
[17:15 CEST 12-10] AUSTRIA – The banking and management group Erste has created Erste Asset Management(EAM), a new umbrella to combine all of its asset management business in Austria and the CEE region.
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Slovak funds see turnaround in Q3
SLOVAKIA – Slovak funds have further strengthened their positive return base for 2009 thanks to a 0.6% investment return in the third quarter, according to data published by the pension fund organisation ADSS.
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NewsPensionskassen doubt regulatory value of Tobin tax
[15:56 CEST 07-10] AUSTRIA - Austria's government and trade unions are pushing for the introduction of an EU Tobin tax on financial transactions, but the country's pension funds doubt that it will have the desired regulatory effect.
