All articles by Fennell Betson – Page 17
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News
State Street chief warns against market timing
ITALY- A strong message about market timing for pension funds came from David Spina, chairman of global custodian State Street this morning.
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Features
Siemens targets Mittelstand plans
With 450,000 employees, Siemens is Europe’s largest employer and ranks among the biggest globally. While the group’s pensions liabilities at E19bn may not be the same as some of the giant US corporations, Siemens has been making determined efforts to put in place a structure that would not just manage ...
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Features
Restating doctrine of matching
Last year the £2.3bn (e3.5bn) Boots pension fund rocked the UK pensions world by putting “every last penny” into a long bond portfolio, as John Ralfe, head of corporate finance at the high street chemist chain and the man responsible for much of the thinking behind the strategy, puts it. ...
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Features
All on the same spreadsheet
Siemens group office head office in Munich is gearing up for the end of the group’s financial year at the end of September, when the uniform asset management reporting system will come into place. All the group’s pension plans will be reporting their performance data according to a group-wide platform. ...
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News
Siemens moves into third party asset management
GERMANY- Siemens Financial Services’ investment management division in Munich is now offering asset management to third party institutional clients. The focus will be on domestic business, particularly for pensions assets of other corporates, says Wolfgang Lotze, head of investment management at SFS.
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Features
'Jigsaw pieces in place'
If the European Court of Justice follows the opinion of the advocate general in the Danner v Finland case on pensions taxation, this would be the first attempt made to abolish all obstacle relating to pensions tax issues. This view was expressed by Leonardo Sforza of consultants Hewitt Associates at ...
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Features
Shifting the emphasis to the continent
A defining moment for Watsons, the UK’s oldest actuarial firm, and probably for international consultancy, was the alliance with the US-based Wyatt in 1995. “That was a big step in our history,” says Paul Thornton, the firm’s senior partner, based in Reigate. “Our end became Watson Wyatt Partners and in ...
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Features
Reacting to local conditions
The Northern Ireland (NI) economy is made up of small businesses – the figures from the Equality Commission that monitors employment patterns in the province for businesses over 11 employees, show that of the 3,800 businesses in the private sector, over 2,700 had less than 50 employees in 2000, and ...
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Features
The shape of things to come
The new shape of the Belgian pension fund industry is preoccupying Karel Stroobants, the former general manager of the VKG/CPM pension fund and just re-elected as president of the Belgian Pension Funds Association. “I want to do everything possible to put the new Belgian pensions law into place, once it ...
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Features
Steel schemes break mould
When the employers and the trade unions in the Belgian metal industry came together in 1999 to discuss the formation of what was to become Le Fonds de Pension Metal, they were conscious they were breaking the mould. It was the first time that a sector-wide plan had been contemplated ...
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Features
Putting new building blocks in place
The pension scheme for construction industry workers in Ireland is very different to other Irish plans. Not only is it an industry-wide scheme, it is also a statutory scheme. “Apart from the national social welfare system, ours is the only statutory scheme in Ireland,” says Pat Ferguson, administrator of the ...
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Features
Minister involves ABA at highest level
The ABA, the German Occupational Pensions Association, has called on labour minister Walter Riester to defer his plans to scrap deferred compensation in 2008. Speaking at the association’s annual conference in Bonn, the chairman of the ABA Boy-Jürgen Andresen, said he would prefer to see the deferred compensation scheme, remain ...
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News
Belgian metal industry sets up white collar scheme
BELGIUM - The support within the Belgian metal industry for the pension fund being set up for white collar workers will be known next month, says Fritz Potemans of Agoria, the Brussels-based association for employer groups in the industry.
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News
Wacker-Chemie offers Riester plan in Pensionskasse
MUNICH - Chemical giant Wacker-Chemie is actively promoting the Riester deferred compensation pension plan throughout its workforce in Germany, based on the joint agreement for the chemical industry.
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News
Kirschenhofer is new Siemens asset management head
GERMANY- Klaus Kirschenhofer has joined Siemens’ corporate finance treasury in Munich after over seven years with Wacker-Chemie as a pensions investment manager and member of the board.
