More comment – Page 36
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Features
Negative rates are truly negative
It is instructive to remember that only a few years ago it was common for negative interest rates to be dismissed as impossible.
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from the US: The Yale effect
Good things come in small packages. It sounds so true reading the latest annual National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) Commonfund study of endowment performance.
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Features
Appeasing the gatekeeper
Last year I attended a drinks reception organised by a UK consultancy. The event was arranged specifically to allow the firm’s staff to meet with the asset management community. The theme running through the opening remarks was simple: “We have no current or future plans to offer fiduciary management, therefore we will never compete with you.”
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Opinion Pieces
Guest Viewpoint: Heribert Karch, MetallRente
A few months ago, if someone had asked me to tell them about Deutschland-Rente (Germany-pension), I would have attempted to explain our state pension system to them
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Features
ABP open season
Would you set up an ABP now if you were creating a public sector pension regime from scratch for the Netherlands? The simplicity of a single scheme and the economies of scale in investment and administration all call for it. But other factors speak against
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Features
Stop monkeying around
Twenty years ago it made sense to use Chinese new year as a peg to discuss investing in China. A decade ago it had worn thin. To do it this year was a sign of hopeless naivety.
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Features
High-yield bonds: Expect dispersion
Last year was a difficult one for high-yield bond investors, particularly in the US, driven by a collapse in metals and mining on top of the decline in oil prices
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from Brussels: Race to upgrade EFSI
Legislative moves to support the EU’s European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) are being rushed through Brussels. But, so far, evidence of any torrent of fund movement by the institutional investment sector across EU frontiers has yet to emerge.
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from the US: In search of balance
A woman leads one of the US pension funds most committed to long-terminism. She is Theresa J Whitmarsh, executive director of the Washington State Investment Board (WSIB), managing over $100bn (€89bn) of state pension, insurance, and other assets. She is also an advocate for a better gender balance in the financial industry, especially in the private equity sector.
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Opinion Pieces
Guest Viewpoint: Chris Woods - FTSE Russell
“If China were to be classified as an emerging market today, the impact would be substantial”
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Features
Is your roof fixed?
With market volatility, oil price falls, interest rate increases in the US and QE in Europe, the investment landscape has rarely looked so clouded
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from Brussels: A simmering conflict
Conflict continues to simmer over the issue of passport rights for non-EU-domiciled hedge funds across the EU
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Features
Keep politics out of pensions
Pension funds and asset managers should focus more on their role of providing retirement income and less on political questions. Indeed, it would be best if the pensions industry ditched entirely what has become known as ESG (environmental, social and governance).
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from the US: Bad deal from IRAs
Americans are saving more in Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs), but this vehicle has the highest fees and the lowest returns, according to a new study by the Center for Retirement Research (CRR) at Boston College. This means trouble for retirees.
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Features
New answers to old problems
With increasing frequency, leading financial sector professionals and academics are expressing doubts about our financial system
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Opinion Pieces
Guest viewpoint: Saker Nusseibeh - Hermes Investment Management
“Carbon risk is more of an issue for investors today than ever… But most fail to take it properly into account”
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Features
Outsourcing: Avoid the bear traps
In a BBC radio programme last year on business issues, the CEO of Serco, Rupert Soames, said that only “stupid people and lazy people” should not outsource
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Features
Stop seeking alpha
Alpha has become a virtual obsession for investors and the financial commentariat. They seek it, search for it, hunt it and go on a quest for it
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Features
Challenging CEE pensions
The breadth of countries, political systems and regulatory set-ups means Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) has a complex patchwork of pension systems. And there has been little of cheer in many countries as pension funds in this diverse region face a wide range of challenges, including demographics, a poor savings culture, complex politics and, of course, an uncertain economic and financial environment.
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from Brussels: A lawyer’s feast
It is a case of tackling one challenge after another in the Capital Markets Union (CMU). According to the European Commission, the present morass of different national insolvency rules creates a barrier to the flow of capital across the EU.
