All articles by Jan Wagner – Page 25
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News
BVI renews efforts for German 401(k)
GERMANY – Following the swearing-in of a new government today, German fund industry association BVI is redoubling efforts to get MPs to introduce its proposal for a simplified retirement account.
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News
German institutions ‘unwilling to take risk’
GERMANY – Nearly all German institutional investors are unwilling to take any risk when investing on capital markets, according to a new study released by German asset manager Union Investment.
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News
Spezialfonds gain €33bn inflow, BVI says
GERMANY – Investor inflows to German institutional funds (Spezialfonds) totalled €33bn in the year to September 30, bringing the total volume of these funds to €613bn, according to German fund industry association BVI.
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News
German book reserves hit by insurance costs
GERMANY – German companies that finance their pension liabilities via book reserves have been hit by a sharp increase in costs to insure corporate pensions against insolvency.
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News
CEIOPS rules out separate pensions committee
EUROPE – CEIOPS chairman Henrik Bjerre-Nielsen has ruled out the need for a separate EU committee on pensions – despite the group’s current focus on the Solvency II project for the insurance industry.
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News
German pension assets ‘set to surge to €4trn’
GERMANY – German occupational pension assets should rise to some €4trn by 2030, as the government continues to promote the second pillar, according to consulting firm A.T. Kearney (corrects figure).
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News
VW facing reports of pension fund abuse
GERMANY – The former Volkswagen managers at the centre of a sex and bribery scandal may have attempted to misappropriate funds from Volkswagen Pension Trust (VPT), the €1.5bn pension fund for the car giant, according to a German newspaper.
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News
Germany plans PAYG subsidies - paper
GERMANY – The emerging Conservative-Social Democrat government plans to raise subsidies to the state pay-as-you-go (PAYG) pension scheme by €2.8bn to ease the enormous financial pressure on the scheme.
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News
Henkel to issue bonds for pensions
GERMANY – Consumer chemicals firm Henkel plans to create a contractural trust arrangement (CTA) for €1bn in German pension liabilities, yet will fund the CTA not with existing liquidity but with the proceeds of a bond issuance.
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News
Swiss Ascoop to take 15 years to erase deficit
SWITZERLAND –Ascoop, the embattled CHF2.1bn (€1.4bn) pension fund for the Swiss transportation sector, has acknowledged that it will need 15 years to restore its full financial health.
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News
Dresdner launches second-pillar campaign
GERMANY – Dresdner Bank, part of insurance giant Allianz, has launched a nationwide marketing campaign in an effort to get German small- and midsize enterprises (SMEs) to do more to promote second-pillar pensions.
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News
Müntefering likely to take pensions role
GERMANY – Despite his surprise resignation as chairman of the Social Democrats, Franz Müntefering is expected to honour his pledge to serve as Germany’s next pensions minister.
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News
New Swiss first pillar reforms proposed
SWITZERLAND – The Swiss government has proposed several first-pillar reforms, including equalising the legal retirement age for male and female workers and reducing the amount of the reserve fund for the state pension scheme.
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News
New study warns of German costs explosion
GERMANY – Costs facing German public sector pension funds and employers that cling to a pay-as-you-go (PAYG) system for financing pension liabilities are set to explode, according to a new study released by German independent financial adviser MLP.
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News
Swiss report highlights support ratio problem
SWITZERLAND – The number of active workers per state pensioner in Switzerland has dropped only slightly since 1991, though this has not alleviated the pressure on the state pension scheme, a new study has found.
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News
BHW Invest sold to Postbank
GERMANY - BHW Invest, a German institutional fund administrator, has confirmed that it is now partially owned by retail banking giant Postbank.
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News
Resignation puts German pensions post in doubt
GERMANY – the identity of Germany’s next pensions minister has been thrown into doubt by yesterday’s resignation by Franz Müntefering as chairman of the social democrats (SPD).
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Features
Managers making their mark
To get an idea why the US investment bank Goldman Sachs is widely respected, consider what it has achieved in Germany since arriving there 15 years ago. Goldman Sachs, which runs a smallish operation in a skyscraper next to Frankfurt’s trade fair, has for years consistently been at the top ...
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Features
Pensions in a state of insecurity
Norbert Blüm, a former Conservative labour minister, once committed one of Germany’s best-known political gaffes by claiming that the state pension was “secure”. While Blüm had good intentions – meaning to say that payment of some pension was guaranteed – he probably should have realised that his remark would be ...
