All Guest Viewpoint articles – Page 15
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Opinion Pieces
Chris Sutton, Towers Watson
Pension funds find themselves between a rock and the hard place as they struggle to provide for ageing populations in a tough investment climate. As a result of this, and of an inheritance of under-funding, retirement savings continue to attract media and public policy attention. Will pension funds be overcome by looming threats or seize the opportunity for change?
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Opinion Pieces
Virginie Maisonneuve & Katherine Davidson, Schroders
“Maternity wards and primary schools in London are experiencing a spike in births, and retailers should benefit”
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Opinion Pieces
Jeroen Wilbrink & Jelle Beenen
In the Guest Viewpoint column of IPE March 2012, Kees Cools and Anton van Nunen claimed that the current calculation used in assessing the health of a pension scheme is incorrect. They also claimed it had forced pension schemes to sell ‘cheap’ equities in favour of ‘expensive’ sovereign bonds, and that this selling has depressed prices of equities.
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Opinion PiecesRonald Doeswijk & Laurens Swinkels, Robeco
To start this contribution on inflation, let’s open with some facts. First, central banks around the world tend to target inflation rates. In developed countries, an inflation target of 2% is not unusual. Second, since major central banks around the globe started to target inflation in the early 1980s, inflation has fallen from double-digit figures to low single digits. So, it is not that difficult to conclude that central banks’ targets are realistic and that there is hardly any reason for investors to worry about inflation in the medium term.
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Opinion Pieces
Kees Cool, Groningen University, and Anton van Nunen, Syntrus Achmea
For the first time since the introduction of the Dutch pension law in 1954, pensioners are to be told that their pensions will be cut by 3-4% from April 2013. Also, companies might be forced to pay extra contributions. The stated reason for this is the low coverage ratios of pension funds. But that this is not correct. By calculating a wrong coverage ratio, employees and pensioners are unduly and unnecessarily hurt, and economic growth is frustrated.
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Opinion Pieces
EIOPA's draft response to the EC on Solvency II
The consultation issued by EIOPA, on its draft response to the EC’s questions about how Solvency II can be amended to apply to pension schemes, closed on 2 January 2012. EIOPA had been asked for advice on how to meet the EC’s objectives of simplifying setting up cross border schemes, modernising the prudential regulation of defined contribution schemes and enabling IORPs to take advantage of risk mitigation techniques. A key procedural objective for the EC is for a consistent regulatory structure to apply across the financial services sector, and it believes this can be achieved by adapting the principles underlying Solvency II for pension schemes.
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Opinion Pieces
Liz Murrall & Jonathan Lipkin, Investment Management Association
Much has been written about investment managers churning stocks, to the detriment of client returns, investee companies and potentially the overall stability of the economy.
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Opinion Pieces
Fiona Stewart, OECD
Fiona Stewart, principal administrator at the OECD, considers why many institutional investors have failed to live up to their long-term investment potential.
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Opinion Pieces
Lans Bovenberg & Casper van Ewijk
The EU debt crisis is making further private funding of pensions more desirable. More private retirement saving is necessary to maintain income in old age when public pensions are being cut due to the crisis. Indeed, the implicit debt in the extensive pay-as-you-go (PAYG) arrangements are an important reason behind the European debt crisis. The best way to address the crisis is to cut entitlement programmes in the medium to long term, while leaving more fiscal room to cushion the economy today.
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Opinion Pieces
Peter Kraneveld: Adviser to APG: Is it time to change?”
“In the US, no one doubts public pension funds are a class apart. The distinction is rarely made in Europe.
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Opinion PiecesGuest Viewpoint: EFAMA's Peter de Proft
"Nobody knows what will be the impact of all these new rules."
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Opinion Pieces
Peter de Proft, Director general of the European Fund and Asset Management Association
“Nobody knows what will be the impact of all these new rules”
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Opinion Pieces
Lee Hollingworth - Head of Defined Contribution at Hymans Robertson
“In our view, the open market option should be the default for all schemes”
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Opinion Pieces
Wouter Pelser: CIO Mn Services
“Changes are necessary to ensure the sustainability of private equity investments and commitments by pension funds”
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Opinion Pieces
Martijn Tans, Director, Aegon Global Pensions
“Most plans have actively addressed the issue of equity and interest rate risk. Those plans should now include longevity risk in their deliberations”
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Opinion Pieces
Bernhard Wiesner - Senior vice president for corporate pensions, Bosch Group
“Europe is entering a period of time of both opportunities and risks that will place the second pillar on a knife’s edge”
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Opinion Pieces
Peter Montagnon, Senior investment adviser, Financial Reporting Council
“The Stewardship Code does not require all its adherents to behave like activists”Peter Montagnon Senior investment adviser, Financial Reporting Council
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Opinion Pieces
Richard Jackson, Center for Strategic and International Studies
“Make large reductions in the generosity of state retirement provision to stave off fiscal Armageddon”
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Opinion Pieces
Svobodka Kostadinova and Nickolai Slavchev
For decades, countries in Europe and beyond have been rebounding between the two ideas of privatising social security and nationalising private pension schemes. Perhaps it is high time that the EU proposed a third way.
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Opinion Pieces
George Hoguet, State Street Global Advisors
As the industry ponders the medium-term implications of quantitative easing, sharp fiscal adjustment in Ireland, Greece and elsewhere, intervention by the Bank of Japan in the Japanese equity market, ‘currency wars’ and the future of the Obama presidency, they must confront a stark reality.
