All Country Reports articles – Page 2
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Country ReportChallenges await after a year of policy change
Reform of the Irish pensions system is in motion with policies set out last year
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Country ReportCountry Report – Pensions in Ireland (February 2022)
Ireland’s new trustee code is bedding in following its publication last autumn. The code aligns Ireland with IORP II, with rules on governance, administration, controls, DB management and ‘fit and proper’ requirements.
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Country ReportCountry Report – Pensions in Central & Eastern Europe (January 2022)
A combination of poor policy decisions and conservative asset allocations have conspired to stifle the development of supplementary pensions in the CEE region since the widespread adoption of the World Bank’s three-pillar model in the 1990s, as IPE Editor Liam Kennedy writes in this issue.
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Country ReportDenmark: Ambitious Denmark leads on green-energy transition
Pension funds play a key role in achieving carbon emissions target set for 2030
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Country ReportCountry Report – Pensions in the Nordic Region (December 2021)
Our report on the Nordic region leads on Denmark’s ambitious plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 70%, and with a 2030 deadline. That plan, the most stringent in the region, needs capital. And while there is no shortage of local pension fund investors willing to contribute, they say more detail is needed on the specifics.
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Country ReportCountry Report – Pensions in France (October 2021)
President Macron’s pension reforms were pretty much shredded by the pandemic. Asset managers and policymakers had been hoping that a successful reform programme would channel savings into supplementary pension vehicles like the FRPS. Instead, progress has been very slow indeed. We also profile the public sector scheme Ircantec and highlight Indefi’s latest research on the French institutional market.
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Country ReportTo engage or to divest?
Dutch pension funds are taking a variety of approaches in their portfolio exclusion policies when it comes to ESG
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Country ReportCountry Report – Pensions in the Netherlands (September 2021)
Dutch pension funds are hesitant to exclude companies or entire sectors from their investments universe and instead prefer to take the route of engagement, as we find out in our latest in-depth report on Dutch pensions. The report also covers how experiences from other countries can help illuminate the current Dutch pension reform, and analyses why the traditionally sleepy market for pension administration is undergoing unprecedented upheaval.
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Country ReportCountry Report: Pensions in Italy
Italian pension funds are growing their allocation to illiquid asset classes at an increasing pace, spearheaded by a number of innovative institutional collaborations. In addition, the sector is more and more making investment choices with ESG factors in mind, as we analyse in our latest in-depth on Italy’s pensions. The report examines the impact of COVID-19 on the health of the country’s second-pillar pensions system, and finds why its future growth is dependent on more decisive policymaking.
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Country ReportDenmark: Sustainability products gaining popularity
Pension providers report growing customer take-up of sustainability offerings
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Country ReportRegional Report – Pensions in Nordics (June 2021)
Two years have passed since AP Pension became the first of Denmark’s main commercial pension providers to launch a pension product labelled as sustainable. Since then, other players have followed suit, launching new ‘sustainable’ pension products in response to demand from customers. In this report, we also look at other developments across the Nordic region, including the strong investment returns of Sweden’s AP6 and how Norway’s municipal pension market is opening up to competition.
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Country ReportCountry Report – Pensions in UK (May 2021)
The UK’s Pension Schemes Act was finally signed in February 2021, after nearly two years of negotiations in parliament that were severely disrupted by elections, Brexit-related negotiations and the COVID-19 pandemic. The new rules have given the Pensions Regulator (TPR) new powers that could see it intervene in corporate actions such as mergers and acquisitions, as we analyse in this report. The report also looks at other key topics impacting the UK pensions sector, including DB funding, climate change, risk management and pension dashboards.
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Country ReportCountry Report – Pensions in the Netherlands (March 2021)
After decades of intense debate surrounding pension reform, a ‘historic’ deal was reached last year between the social partners and the government about the direction of the new Dutch pension system. The move from defined benefit (DB) to defined contribution (DC) under the new pension contract is having an impact on the sector as a whole. In this report, we explore some of the key issues facing the industry including funding pressures, assessing members’ risk appetite, the future of fiduciary management, and the surge in alternative strategies
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Country ReportCEE – Croatia: Real diversification
A lack of local diversification opportunities is holding back Croatian pension funds
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Country ReportCEE – Romania: Funds fight through
Conservative portfolios have served Romanian pension funds well through the crisis
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Country ReportCEE – Estonia: Preparing for a liquidity storm
A rule allowing early withdrawals is changing the dynamics of the Estonian pension business
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Country ReportCEE – Poland: Auto-enrolment limps to the finishing line
Lack of trust underpins poor take-up of new plans
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Country ReportDenmark's ATP: Accelerating diversity
ATP has written its own manual to boost diversity among its senior workforce
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Country ReportSwitzerland: Moves to ease the passage of reforms
Changes to the first and the second pillars are running in parallel to make them acceptable to the public
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Country ReportSwitzerland: The road to digital pensions
From letters still sent by pension funds, to apps and portals, the road to digitise the Swiss pension system looks long but promising
