epn: European Pensions & Investment News articles from December 2002

epn: European Pensions & Investment News archives from December 2002

News: Commission backs SRI transparency kitemark.
December 9, 2002... Sustainable investment funds will have the opportunity to obtain a kitemark for the transparency of their methodology, under a system funded by the European Commission. The accreditation system will be voluntary and a draft should be ready...

News: Nasdaq sees niche and launches ETF for European market.
December 9, 2002... US index provider Nasdaq has launched a European version of its US$20bn (E20bn) QQQ ETF. The Nasdaq-100 European Tracker, known as EQQQ, will closely follow the US index, but will be euro-denominated and trade in European hours. Europe has been...

News: EMAC procrastinates on details of directive.
December 9, 2002... The European parliament's economic and monetary affairs committee (EMAC) discussed the draft directive on pan-European occupational retirement provision again on 27 November - the first time since early 2001. They marked the return of the...

Scheme News: Dutch gamble on regulator's leniency.
December 9, 2002... Dutch pension fund managers are banking on regulatory leniency as they scramble to meet an end-of-year deadline to file plans for boosting their funding levels. Pension fund managers throughout the Netherlands say they expect the regulator,...

Scheme News: Portuguese funds carry on falling.
December 9, 2002... The median return for Portuguese pension funds in the third quarter was -2.4%, bringing a total return for the year to -5.1% so far. This is an improvement on the second quarter's results, which showed a return of -3.1%. Watson Wyatt's Semp...

Asset Management News: Leading by example.
December 9, 2002... Enhanced indexation has been widely accepted as an investment technique in the US for about 10 years, but has only recently taken off in Europe and institutional investors in the UK are only now starting to see the benefits, according to...

Asset Management News: Tripling of profits sought by F&C's dynamic duo.
December 9, 2002... F&C Management plans to triple its third-party assets under management in Germany from E1bn to E3bn, following the appointment of Claus Heidrich and Elmar Rathmayr to run a new marketing operation in Frankfurt. F&C was majority owned by...

People on the move: SSgA win over Handley.
December 9, 2002... Christopher Handley has joined State Street Global Advisors as an investment manager from Henderson Global Investors. Handley, who was a passive fund manager for Henderson in charge of GBP3bn of funds, has joined SSgA's indexation team. He...

People on the move: Hunt good catch for F&C.
December 9, 2002... F&C Management has appointed Philip Hunt, from Friends Ivory & Sime as its new head of credit strategy. Hunt was at Friends Ivory & Sime for 12 years with the last thee as their head of bonds. F&C Management's chief investment officer,...

News: The fight for pensions.
December 9, 2002... The first battle may be lost, but the war to clamp down on insurance companies providing pensions in Switzerland has only just begun. After failing to get the Federal Assembly to maintain a 4% guarantee on returns, Swiss campaigners - led by...

News: TPG pin hopes on Aegon buyout.
December 9, 2002... Dutch pension managers TPG KPN Pensioen (TKP) are hoping a change of ownership will allow them to take advantage of what managing director Hans Hokke said is a coming boom in outsourcing. TKP revealed last week that it is in end-stage...

Hedge Fund Profile: Odey European - The connoisseur's choice.
December 9, 2002... When you choose a hedge fund, you always want performance. But you also want this performance to be tried and tested: this is why you want a track record. Not so much because you believe that past performance gives any indication of future...

Comment & Analysis: Pension funds and equities belong together.
December 9, 2002... Equities are still the natural home for most pension fund assets. The alternative view is misguided. It is in fact impossible for a continuing fund to nullify its exposure to market movements, because there is no asset which matches the...

Leader: Market falls bury serendipity.
December 9, 2002... A man of genius makes no mistakes. His errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery, wrote James Joyce. After a truly awful year, asset managers cannot be so grand in their thinking. A mistake means failure, failure means losses,...

Survey: 2002 Review - A matter of perspective.
December 9, 2002... "In a lower return world, yield matters." This quote comes from a major asset manager within this year's epn innovators supplement. It could well be the axiom for 2003. The world seems decidedly to have turned its back on growth, and yield has...

Survey: 2002 Review - No turkeys for the festive season.
December 9, 2002... A few days ago on the White House south lawn, President Bush performed an important task of the executive branch - he spared a turkey. This was not an act of compassionate conservatism - past commanders-in-chief's regardless of political...

Fund Portrait: Denmark's ATP - Preserving the health of a nation.
December 9, 2002... Denmark's DKR234bn (E31.5bn) Labour Supplementary Pension Scheme (ATP) has suffered a 6.6% loss in the first three quarters of this year, following on from a 2.6% loss during 2001. Denmark's biggest pension fund's bonds and equities...

Research Update: Do SRI funds outperform the market?
December 9, 2002... There has been increasing focus in recent years on socially responsible investment. The market in SRI investment funds is well under 10% of the global asset management market, but SRI considerations have a much broader effect on investment...

Pensions Snapshot: Netherlands.
December 9, 2002... The Dutch pension system, though not yet in crisis, still faces severe pressure due to volatile and declining returns from equity investment over the last two years. This led the Pensioen & Verzekeringskamer (PVK), supervisor for the pensions...

Pensions Snapshot: Netherlands - In brief.
December 9, 2002... - The setting of a buffer against a 40% decline in equity values is as against their peak benchmark value of the previous 48 months. But funds must also be capable of absorbing a price decline of up to 10% relative to the lowest value of the...