Latest from IPE Magazine – Page 283
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Features
Falling (further) behind
“Pensions are safe”, Germany’s one-time pensions minister, Norbert Blüm, famously said in the 1990s. That ill-judged statement still influences discussions about the German state pension system even today.
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Features
Scania and the benefits of independence
Volkswagen’s bid for heavy vehicle manufacturer Scania has divided Swedish institutional investors, with the division no more apparent than among its buffer funds.
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Features
Nudging its way to reform
Nearly two years after the German pension association aba threw its weight behind the introduction of auto-enrolment, little has happened to increase the coverage of the second pillar.
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Features
Ongoing FTK delay annoys pensions sector
Tensions are rising in the Dutch pensions sector. Every day that details for the new financial assessment framework (FTK) fail to appear – let alone pass Parliament – pension funds, providers, advisers and asset managers must anxiously weigh their options.
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Features
Carrot or stick: the shift to passive
Earlier this year, the UK pension and asset management industries watched as the government revealed its vision for the 89 Local Government Pension Schemes (LGPS) in England and Wales.
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Features
Pressure on, pressure off
The 22 July deadline for implementation of the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD) is looming. As with other EU financial legislation, AIFMD will be enforced via national regulators and with varying approaches, so this will not be consistent across EU member states.
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Features
Triumph of hope over experience
Book review: Money Mania: Booms, Panics and Busts from Ancient Rome to the Great Meltdown, Bob Swarup (Bloomsbury, £20)
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Opinion Pieces
M&A medicine
The debate about Pfizer’s proposed takeover of the UK’s AstraZeneca – which should have resolved itself by the time you read this – reminds us that there are some big unanswered questions relating to institutional investors and M&A activity.
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Opinion Pieces
Bart Heenk, Managing director, Avida International
“A balanced scorecard enables trustees to monitor, assess and improve outsourced services”
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Features
What are the benefits?
The European Commission unveiled its proposals for a uniform pension benefit statement this spring. The idea has had a mixed reception, as Gail Moss finds
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Features
Counting on the krona
Erik Callert, chief investment officer of SPP Livförsäkring, tells Jonathan Williams how an overhaul of its portfolio left it better equipped to deal with Solvency II
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Country Report
Switzerland: A dying breed
Smaller companies are pulling out of pensions thanks to cost, regulation and demographics. Barbara Ottawa charts the trend
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Country Report
Switzerland: Securities lending in focus
Only months before legislation on executive pay and shareholder voting comes into force, Jonathan Williams finds an industry uncertain about whether it will be forced to vote shares, and how new rules will affect securities lending
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Country Report
Nordic Region: Energising alternatives
Rachel Fixsen reports on the search for new investment opportunities within the alternatives sector
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Special Report
Liability-Driven Investment: Let's get physical
Are low risk-free rates, a greater willingness to take credit and illiquidity risk in matching portfolios and regulatory changes encouraging investors to turn their backs on derivatives and embrace cash-market assets?
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Special Report
Liability-Driven Investment: Mind the gap
Market conditions over the past six years have increased the necessity of managing bond-swap spread risk in LDI strategies.
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Special Report
Liability-Driven Investment: Caught short
Pension funds recognise that they are exposed to movements in long-term interest rates when they enter into swap contracts – that is the point of the hedge. But Emma Cusworth draws attention to the importance of volatility in the short-dated floating leg too
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Special Report
Liability-Driven Investments: The other 30%
Martin Steward looks at swaptions strategies to cover contingencies around the rump of LDI users’ un-hedged liabilities
