More comment – Page 42
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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
Lighting dark corners
The European Commission’s planned revisions to rules on shareholder rights aim to encourage a culture of long-term equity investment across the EU.
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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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Opinion Pieces
TIAA-CREF expands
Six years after taking the helm as president and CEO of the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association – College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA-CREF), Roger Ferguson announced the acquisition of Nuveen Investments in April for $6.25bn (€4.5bn), including debt.
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Features
High frequency problems
High frequency trading (HFT) has scuttled into the limelight this year since the publication of Flash Boys, Michael Lewis’ recent book on the subject. While most people agree that faster, smarter trading is generally good, and that rigged markets are an entirely bad thing, there is by no means agreement where HFT fits in.
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Features
Growing pensions China style
China launched a massive stimulus pro- gramme in 2008 in its bid to fend off the ravages of the global downturn. While that largely succeeded, there are now long-standing fears of an asset bubble, particularly in property. Growth is predicted to slow this year to its lowest rate since 1990. The country is in the midst of an anti-corruption drive, which is hitting sales of luxury goods, and air quality is still awful.
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Features
Three is a magic number (again)
Last month I wrote about how bond-market valuations are supported by the shape of the yield curve. This month (inspired by a presentation by BNP Paribas’ Kokou Agbo-Bloua I saw recently) we will turn to equities.
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Features
Brinksmanship
The Dutch pension system has been on the brink of a large-scale overhaul for five years now. In 2009 the government postponed a wholesale revision of Dutch second- pillar pensions with two major studies into the sustainability of the Dutch second pillar. Their findings led to a slew of reform proposals – some sensible, some outrageous, all contentious.
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Features
Little red box full of radical tricks
Every spring, the UK chancellor presents the public with a red box full of tricks, setting out the government’s economic plans. While pension tax relief has often been tinkered with, this year George Osborne announced a wide-ranging reform of the defined contribution (DC) at-retirement system, the implications of which will be far-reaching.
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Features
Can the EC play a long-term game?
As part of the European Commission’s reinvigorated attempt to promote future investment in key economic areas, it has now produced a legislative agenda for the long-term financing of investment.
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Opinion Pieces
The countdown begins
The countdown has started. By the end of May, 751 members of the European Parliament will have been selected by as many of the 400m electors who care enough to vote.
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Features
On the naughty step
Moves by members of the European Parliament to subject accountancy bodies to greater political scrutiny spell trouble for the IFRS Foundation, writes Stephen Bouvier
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Opinion Pieces
Nigel Waterson, Chairman of trustees, Now Pensions
“There is one universal truth upon which virtually everyone agrees – the UK annuities market is broken”
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Features
Credit where it’s due
Of the 22 investors polled for this month’s Focus Group, seven feel that credit has become more important in their fund’s portfolio over the past five years, and a further 10 believe it has become slightly more important. Only two rate credit as less important.
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Opinion Pieces
Glide paths and targets
Target-date funds (TDFs) are so popular in the US that even the nation’s largest defined contribution (DC) pension system – the $400bn (€290bn) Thrift Savings Plan, the 401(k)-style retirement plan for federal staff – is thinking of making its TDF the default option for new employees. But with an increasingly diverse array of TDFs, concern is growing among plan sponsors and advisers about the level of fiduciary responsibility involved.
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Features
A few reactions…
The leaked draft of the IORP II Directive has generally received positive reactions from experts in the European pensions industry.
