More comment – Page 38
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Features
Prudence penalty
As we mark seven years since the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers this month, the blunt instrument of regulation still hangs over pension funds with respect to European derivatives trading
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Features
China’s importance still underplayed
The turmoil in China is both less serious and more serious than generally assumed.
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Features
Smart questions
There are plenty of interesting questions surrounding smart beta investment in an institutional context. First, does it work? Apparently it does, as academics find more and more evidence that it pays to have passive exposure to factors such as value, low volatility and small-caps.
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from Brussels: A tricky path ahead
The process of making pensions policy in Brussels between now and end of the year resembles two juggernauts moving towards each other
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from the US: A new way of thinking
Three years ago car makers Ford and General Motors opened the way to a new means of de-risking defined-benefit (DB) pension plans. They offered a lump sum to participants who were receiving benefits
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Opinion Pieces
Guest Viewpoint: Jason Hsu - Research Affiliates
“A public hanging is a good thing now and then.” These are the words of an anonymous CEO whose sentiment would indicate that the firm he led was probably struggling to meet the service and performance expectations of its clients
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Features
Time to focus
Few would see an immediate parallel between the pension fund world and that of commercial aviation. Yet the story of the Douglas Corporation is interesting
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Features
US Equities: Elephant in the room
The US equity market is the elephant in the room for any institutional investor. It has also been a very excitable elephant with the S&P500 reaching all-time highs in the first half of 2015
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Features
The political dimension of Italy's pensions
Pensions and politics are seldom friends. Politicians, more often than not, seek short-term policy impact; pension systems take time and patience to develop. This tension is unravelling in Italy
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from Brussels: Ready with the axe?
The lack of demand rather than supply for both credit and capital is a common criticism from investors of the EU’s capital market union (CMU) programme
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from the US: Reform challenge
The head of one of America’s largest financial product providers recently gave a provocative talk on retirement to a think tank based in New York
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Opinion Pieces
Guest Viewpoint: Paul Smith - CFA Institute
“Investment management industry leaders must develop professionalism at every level of their firms”
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Opinion Pieces
ESG Viewpoint: The energy transition challenge
Investors need to systematically address secular global mega-trends in their investment selection and portfolio construction strategies. None of those is more critical than climate change
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Features
QE: Uncertainty is Queen
It is unsurprising that Dutch pension funds sought to voice their concerns about the effect of QE on their sector before that decision was ratified
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Features
No smoke without fire
There is a strange rhetoric surrounding the recent sell-off in European bonds, which pushed yields up for the first time in many months
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from Brussels: Awaking a sleep-walking economy
A few more European cross-border lending opportunities have started to emerge. This follows anticipation of the European Investment Plan launched by Jean-Claude Juncker
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from the US: DB pensions bond bind
US corporate pension funds are caught in a dilemma. They are buying long-dated bonds to match their liabilities but in doing so they are driving down their yields, making liabilities look more expensive
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Opinion Pieces
Guest Viewpoint: Dick Boeijen & Niels Kortleve - PGGM
“The Netherlands can learn from countries with more experience of DC and other countries can profit from Dutch expertise of risk sharing”
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Features
Sovereign wonderland
Potential investors in Europe’s sovereign bond markets may feel they have stepped into Alice in Wonderland. Many sovereign debt markets are offering return-free risks, and negative bond yields make a mockery of traditional explanations of the time value of money. What we are seeing is the end result of two powerful but opposing forces within Europe that reflect the chaotic responses to the global financial crisis.
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Features
Hard to explain
The European Central Bank’s QE programme is taking its toll on pension funds as healthy returns are unable to keep pace with liabilities
