More comment – Page 55
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Features
Bond managers are worryingly sanguine
ECB president Mario Draghi unveiled his latest measures to arrest disinflation and rouse dormant corporate lending markets in June. Soon afterwards, big records started tumbling.
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Features
Put the trust back
Italy is a self-perpetuating paradox. Structural and historical forces keep the country under constant pressure; yet they drive a search for innovation to solve long-lasting problems. The pension system is a perfect example.
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Opinion Pieces
Is divesting working?
OK, it doesn’t work very well. We’re still on track for runaway climate change, according to Fatih Birol, chief economist of the International Energy Authority.
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Features
Risk in emerging markets and beyond
Book review Emerging Markets in an Upside Down World: Challenging Perceptions in Asset Allocation and Investment, Jerome Booth (Wiley, £29.99)
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Opinion Pieces
“Italian employees have great need of consistent additional pension coverage”
Assets managed by pension funds in Italy equate to about 6% of its gross domestic product. In a country where the social security system provides an adequate level of coverage at retirement that would not be a concern. But in Italy, after all the recent reforms, this situation represents a relevant risk for both employees and employers. Benefits provided by the social security system have strongly decreased over the last 20 years and the retirement age raised considerably.
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Opinion Pieces
What's outstanding
The EU’s institutional world is starting a new term. Now that the parliamentary elections are over, the commissioners have only until the end of October before their replacements take up office. With the increasing presence of euro-sceptic MEPs, it could be a stressful five years ahead.
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Opinion Pieces
On track with 401(k)
Individual retirement savings accounts (IRAs) have been helping US workers navigate the ups and downs of Wall Street since the 2008 financial crisis. IRAs and employer-sponsored defined contribution (DC) plans grew to $6.5trn and $5.9trn (€4.8trn and €4.3trn), respectively, at year-end 2013, up from $5.6trn and $5trn the previous year, according to data in the 2014 Investment Company Fact Book.
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Features
Another eventful summer
The Spanish Treasury joined the UK, Germany, France and Italy as the fifth European sovereign to issue inflation-linked bonds on 13 May, raising €5bn for 10-year paper that was four times oversubscribed.
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Features
Put the trust back
Being outside the EU doesn’t mean you escape regulation. Swiss pension funds are complaining about excessive regulation – in this case, the burden is homemade and only to some extent fuelled by the financial crisis.
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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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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
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.
