epn: European Pensions & Investment News articles from December 2007

epn: European Pensions & Investment News archives from December 2007

News: Italian fund Previndai continues shake-up.
December 3, 2007... Byline: Caroline Liinanki As a part of its tender for new managers, Previndai, the GBP3bn pension fund for managers of industrial companies, is also reviewing its three current investment houses. The fund, based in Rome, has put out a...

News: UK minister slams Sweden's PPM.
December 3, 2007... United Kingdom The British minister of state for pension reform has suggested that the establishment of personal accounts in Sweden and Japan was a failure and is wary that the UK experiment could go the same way. Speaking at the FT's...

News: Swedish ITP savers reluctant to make choice.
December 3, 2007... Byline: Caroline Liinanki Sweden Fifteen per cent of Swedish ITP savers made an active choice in the new white collar workers scheme because they felt any option would be better than Alecta's default option. A further 55 per cent...

News: In numbers.
December 3, 2007... 620 - New mandate, in euro millions, awarded by Dutch food producer Royal Cosun to State Street Corporation to provide investment services for pension fund assets. More specifically, the investment firm will provide global custody, accounting,...

News: Equity managers for BNL to be unveiled.
December 3, 2007... Byline: Chris Newlands Italy The 1bn pension fund for the workers of BNL, Italy's sixth largest bank, is to submit the names of its chosen emerging market equity managers to its board at a mid-December meeting. The fund will also...

News: VER focuses on emerging markets.
December 3, 2007... Finland Valtion Elakerahasto (VER), the 12bn pension fund for Finnish state employees, is to double its exposure to emerging market equities from 5 per cent to 10 per cent of its equity portfolio next year. The move will be at the...

News in Brief: AXA Investment Managers UK has announced.
December 3, 2007... AXA Investment Managers UK has announced that it is reshaping its institutional business. It has also appointed Simon Cartwright from Fidelity International Limited as head of global consultant relationships. The firm will create three pillars...

News in Brief: T. Rowe Price has appointed.
December 3, 2007... T. Rowe Price has appointed Nick Trueman to its global consultant relations team. Mr Trueman will have responsibility for developing the firm's relationships with UK and Irish investment consultants and also to assist the European sales teams...

News in Brief: Northern Trust Global Investments.
December 3, 2007... Northern Trust Global Investments has launched a Global Emerging Markets Index Fund targeted at institutional investors. The fund will help investors achieve net returns in line with emerging equity markets. It tracks the MSCI Emerging...

News: Firm reinforces ESG research.
December 3, 2007... Watson Wyatt has made an additional hire to its global manager research team to focus on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. Paul Richards, previously at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, has joined as a senior investment...

People on the Move: Principal Global Investors.
December 3, 2007... Principal Global Investors has made three appointments to its European teams with the recruitment of two analysts and a currency strategist. Atish Suchak has been appointed as credit analyst for the fixed income team. Hardy Soegianto, joining...

People on the Move: Northern Trust has made two additions.
December 3, 2007... Northern Trust has made two additions to its global fund services (GFS). Sue Baines, previously a business development manager at the firm, has been appointed as head of GFS sales for Europe, Middle East and Africa. She will be responsible for...

People on the Move: Henderson Global Investors.
December 3, 2007... Henderson Global Investors has recruited Seb Beloe as head of SRI research. He will lead the identification and analysis of SRI issues for the SRI funds and also oversee the research team's communication. Mr Beloe joins from SustainAbility UK,...

People on the Move: Baring Asset Management.
December 3, 2007... Baring Asset Management has made three appointments to its fixed income team. Christophe Pella, Dagmar Dvorak and Will Nef will join as investment managers based in London. Mr Pella will be working with fixed income targeted return mandates and...

People on the Move: Rogge Global Partners has appointed Alex Johnson.
December 3, 2007... Rogge Global Partners has appointed Alex Johnson as a generalist portfolio manager. He joins from Blackrock, where he spent two years working with business development and fixed income products. Prior to that, Mr Johnson worked at Fischer,...

People on the Move: Credit Suisse.
December 3, 2007... Credit Suisse has appointed Rami Hayek as co-head of Asia Pacific distribution for asset management. Mr Hayek, who joins from Deutsche Bank Private Wealth Management, will report to JC Perrig, head of distribution for asset management and...

Comment: Leader - It's a long way to fall if you're used to winning.
December 3, 2007... Byline: Chris Newlands, Editor Nobody likes losing. Particularly a nation that won the FIFA World Cup in 2006 - not to mention the other three it picked up in 1934, 1938 and 1982. But lose it did. Not content to just slip seven places...

Comment: Industry voice - Change and opportunity.
December 3, 2007... Byline: Cristobal Mendez de Vigo Over the last few years the face of the asset management industry has changed significantly, bringing new challenges and opportunities for all of those involved in the sector. The old product-pushing days...

Commment: Mephisto - A step too far for French revolution.
December 3, 2007... What a great week for Mephisto to take his family to Paris. Taking my brood into the city via train proved impossible. The station resembled a ghost town with piles of uncollected trash sitting ankle-high. The only option was a taxi to the...

Fund Profile: Italy - Previndai pension fund - Growth and change at Italian managers' fund.
December 3, 2007... Byline: Spencer Anderson Sitting on a rapidly growing GBP3bn in assets under management, Italy's Previndai pension fund has some serious decisions to make. The fund could be in for a significant shake-up as its current mandates are all...

Country Profile: Finland.
December 3, 2007... Byline: Caroline Liinanki After years of debate and deliberation, the Finnish government has decided that the supervisory authorities for the financial and insurance sectors will merge. Preparations to establish a new structure, which will...

Features: The Netherlands - Financial Assessment Framework - Will slow but steady change win the race?
December 3, 2007... Byline: Mariska van der Westen A year ago, a survey by epn's sister magazine npn suggested that the implementation of the new Dutch pensions law was proceeding slowly. Only about 36 per cent of pension funds surveyed were ready with the...

Features: In brief.
December 3, 2007... - While the number of funds ready for the new framework has increased since last year, there is still progress to be made with internal oversights and knowledge assessments. The new law includes a code of good management, but the regulator has...

Features: The Netherlands - Financial Assessment Framework - Dutch regime is 'not as strict as it seems'.
December 3, 2007... Byline: Mariska van der Westen The reputation of the Dutch Financial Assessment Framework, FTK, for strictness compared to other countries' regimes is undeserved, according to regulator De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB). "The Dutch regime looks...

The Specialist: Richard Tyszkiewicz - Strategic Portfolio Reviews - 'Tis the season for a strategic portfolio review.
December 3, 2007... This can be a tough time of year for pension fund managers. Not only is it getting cold and dark, with Christmas shopping looming on the horizon, but this is also when annual strategic portfolio reviews are generating changes that will have to...