All articles by John Lappin – Page 7
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Features
Selection: Lining up for the beauty parade
Advisers involved in fund selection in the UK, Germany and Switzerland agree that there is no single set of criteria and that any process must start by assessing client needs.Ed Wilson, head of investment re-search at HSBC Gibbs in Manchester, explains the process: The first thing we do is take ...
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Features
BAT looks to boost global performance
In 1995, the tobacco and financial conglomerate, BAT Industries decided to develop a corporate pensions function,” appointing Simon Dudley - who had worked in a similar role at Unilever - as its pensions and benefits manager. Dudley, recently promoted to head of group personnel, has begun to implement an international ...
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Features
Poland adopts the Chilean model
The Polish Parliament is expected to pass legislation allowing Chile-style mandatory pension funds to be set up, with contributions in the first year of operation, expected to be 1999, estimated at $3bn.The new funds, in which major domestic and international banks and insurance companies are expected to be shareholders, will ...
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Features
Austria: Government action depresses equities
The Austrian market has been underperforming in comparison with other continental markets where it normally shows a high correlation due to changes in its company taxation.Yet analysts believe that the market could still provide opportunities for stock selection.Paul Severin, head of re-search Austrian equities at Creditanstalt Investment Bank in Vienna ...
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Features
Unison uncertainty as brokers merge
The future of the Unison consultancy network is in jeopardy as a result of merger plans between US in-surance giant, Marsh & McLennan - parent company of William Mercer - and Johnson & Higgins (J&H), the core of the Unison employee benefits network.The Unison network covers insurance broking as well ...
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Features
Belgian pension funds look for equality with insurers
Belgian pension funds are looking for a level playing field with insurers as the authorities review the relevant regulations.Pension funds hope to expand into fixed commitment funds by running funds on the basis of a tariff and mortality tables - in addition to conventional funds, according to Hervé Noel president ...
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Features
Winterthur's Pensionkasse marks Austrian expansion
The Winterthur Pensionskasse recently formed by the Swiss group in Vienna is seen as an important step in its pensions provision in Austria and for expansion in central and eastern Europe.The Pensionskasse has just become operational as an independent pension fund and taken on its first three clients, one of ...
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Features
EURACS warns of danger ahead for Euro companies
Europe’s companies, particularly those based in southern Europe, could find themselves bearing the cost of social security cutbacks, a European consultancy network has warned.The warning accompanies the re-cently published report EURACS Pension Summaries, a survey of social security and pensions arrangements across Europe, compiled by EURACS member firms.In a statement ...
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Features
Irish start on pensions reform
Ireland has taken the first step towards reform of its occupational pensions sector with the launch of the National Pensions Policy Initiative. The publication, on the 13 February, of a 72-page government document setting out possible policy courses marked the start of a national consultation exercise. The deadline for responses ...
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Features
Norway: Phillips widens horizons
Phillips Petroleum in Norway is looking for investments beyond the domestic bond market, because of the relatively flat prospects for growth this year, but it currently holds the maximum allowed for domestic and in-ternational equity portfolios. The fund, which manages approximately $200m, has 70% of its holdings in domestic bonds, ...
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Features
Russia puts funds on firmer footing
Russian investment funds, illegitimately described as pensions funds will be forced to drop the name, when a pensions bill, strengthening the Russian pensions inspectorate and currently progressing through the Duma, becomes law. Russia’s 200 non-state pension funds involving the savings of 1.5 million Russians will also b e given a ...
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Features
French company schemes 'a winner', says survey
The new French company pensions law should be a guaranteed success according to a survey carried out by Frank Russell Paris for Groupe AXA. Sixty-nine per cent of the companies surveyed aim to set up plans under the new law. A total of forty companies responded to the survey, carried ...
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Features
UK committee criticised for pensions recommendations
The UK-centred debate over Europe’s pensions liability and its affect on EMU heated up last month when a lobbying group published a paper criticising the Parliamentary Social Security Committee for recommending that unfunded pensions liabilities should be included in the EMU convergence criteria. In addition, in mid-February, the committee held ...
