Pensions Week articles from December 2002

Pensions Week archives from December 2002

News: Presidential treatment for ICI.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2002... An adviser to US president George W Bush has entered into the furore over a British pension fund that is part-sponsored by ICI in order to save the pensions of workers at a Belfast company. Richard Haass, Bush's special adviser on Northern...

News: Lack of pre-Budget radicalism sees faith in government waiver.(Government may not have ability to reform pensions)
December 2, 2002... Confidence in the government's ability to reform pensions all but evaporated last week following the pre-Budget report by chancellor Gordon Brown. The pre-Budget report strengthened the belief that the Department for Work and Pensions'...

News: NHS pensions in 100% employer contribution hike.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2002... NHS pension scheme employers' contributions will double following the schemes' adoption of full liability for pension increase costs in April 2003, it was announced last week. In a published ministerial statement sneaked out last Thursday,...

News: ASW members prepare for battle.(ASW pension plan members could lose at least quarter of their pension rights)(Brief Article)
December 2, 2002... Benefit statements sent to certain members of the ASW pension scheme suggest that they stand to lose at least a quarter of their pension rights, members say as they prepare for a legal battle. But active members - who were in London last...

News: 20-year-old law may save workers' benefits.(European employment insolvency directive is discussed)(Brief Article)
December 2, 2002... The government has claimed it meets its obligations to protect workers' benefits under European law following moves to prosecute it under a 20-year- old insolvency directive. The ISTC steelworkers union said last week that it may bring a...

News: Building firm's DB scheme topples.
December 2, 2002... One of the top three UK building merchants has shut down its final salary scheme to new employees but left the scheme open for directors. Travis Perkins was one of the first schemes to adopt FRS17 but said the closure was unrelated to the...

News: Devon insists it will stay in cream of council funds.(Devon County Council's pension fund performs well)(Brief Article)
December 2, 2002... Devon County Council pension fund expects to stay in the upper quartile of local authority investment performance. A recent report showed that for the first six months to 30 September the total fund return was -18.1% - marginally better...

News: TUC: ACT didn't cause crisis.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2002... The 1997 abolition of the advance corporation tax (ACT) credit to pension funds is not to blame for the pensions crisis, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) has claimed. The TUC said companies were wrong to use the ACT issue as an excuse to...

News: Not plain sailing for the Sea-Land member's claim.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2002... A member of the Sea-Land pension scheme is filing a complaint to the trustees of the scheme using the internal dispute resolution (IDR) procedure. The member, who does not wish to be named, is obliged to exhaust the IDR procedure before...

News: Funds warned on FX trading.
December 2, 2002... Pension funds of GBP1bn or over could lose as much as GBP100,000 with just a minor loss of one basis point on foreign exchange (FX) currency transactions, experts say. They warn that millions could be wasted by custodians or fund managers...

News: Investment managers told to adapt or die.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2002... Retail fund managers across Europe are offering too many products to too few clients as a result of the take-off in fund of funds and multi-manager packages, which is mirrored by the institutional market. PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) says...

News: AEGON makes Positive move.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2002... AEGON - the insurer which owns Scottish Equitable - has taken a 60% stake in independent financial adviser (IFA) firm, Positive Solutions (Financial Services), with an option to purchase the remaining 40% by 2006. The amount of the...

News: BGI bucks the trend with Euro hedge fund.(Barclays Global Investors)
December 2, 2002... Barclays Global Investors' (BGI) European Equity Market Neutral Fund, which was launched on 1 November, has closed to investors after unexpected high levels of interest. The fund has a capacity of E500m. BGI said the interest was...

News: Lack of funding leads to GSTPA collapse.(Global Straight Through Processing Associaton )(Brief Article)
December 2, 2002... An alliance of financial organisations that attempted to streamline the settlement of actions between fund managers has collapsed following lack of interest. The Global Straight Through Processing Association (GSTPA) was made up of 41...

News: Pensions lump sum to stay.
December 2, 2002... Chancellor of the exchequer Gordon Brown quashed fears that the tax-free lump sum on pensions savings would be scrapped when he delivered his pre-Budget report last week. Brown said despite rumours, the tax-free lump sum would remain, as...

News: IFAs back raise in retirement age.
December 2, 2002... The majority of independent financial advisers (IFAs) say they would welcome the raising of the state retirement age to address the supposed pension funding crisis. An AXA survey found that 58% of IFAs believed the key solution to solve...

News: Savings culture under threat, says MP.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2002... Conservative shadow minister for work and pensions Julian Brazier MP has warned that the "cancer" of retirement dependency is growing and spreading. Brazier said its symptoms included a fall in the household savings ratio to 3.7%, which he...

News: Govt continues to back 60/40 public/private split.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2002... The government repeated its commitment to reversing the 60/40 public/private split in pension provision last week. Under repeated pressure from the shadow secretary of state for work and pensions, David Willetts, as to whether the...

News: Benchmark - Cautiously optimistic.(Some fund managers are optimistic about end of bear market)
December 2, 2002... It would take a brave or foolish person to predict the end of this bear market, but conversations among our fund managers are certainly getting more optimistic. John Richards, our chief investment officer sees corporate investment picking up...

News: Borrowing rise could help annuity rates.
December 2, 2002... Higher than expected increases in public sector borrowing, announced by chancellor Gordon Brown in the pre-Budget report (PBR), could lead to higher annuity rates for retirees. Canada Life retirement income marketing manager, Peter Carter,...

News: Threadneedle bags M&S DC switch deal.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2002... Marks & Spencer has appointed Threadneedle Investments to provide defined contribution (DC) services to its newly launched scheme in the wake of closing its defined benefit plan to new employees. Threadneedle will provide investment and...

News: Lonrho's trustee battle commences.(Lonrho Africa Trade & Finance)(Brief Article)
December 2, 2002... The High Court case between Lonrho Africa Trade & Finance, which owns the John Holt pension scheme, and trustees who used the surplus to increase benefits (PW 25.11.02) went ahead last week. It is expected to be several weeks before the...

News: Equitable just the start, MP warns.(Equitable Life)
December 2, 2002... A backbench Tory MP warned of more Equitable Life-style collapses last week as politicians grow increasingly short of patience with the saga. The warning, from Mark Field MP, came in the wake of the resignation of the mutual's chief...

News: Ombudsman Watch.
December 2, 2002... Life choices No new ombudsman determinations were published last week. So I turn to other current matters. Last week I went to a seminar on ageing issues. A music therapist, who works in a residential care home for the elderly, had some...

News: Calls for property to be core class.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2002... Commercial property should be seen as a core component of a pension fund portfolio rather than an alternative asset class, say Credit Suisse Asset Management (CSAM). Among reasons to back this claim, CSAM says that UK commercial property...

News: Property hotting up for pensions.
December 2, 2002... Pension funds are showing greater confidence in property investment, which has been pushed to the forefront by diving equities. Research by property investment managers Baring, Houston & Saunders (BHS) shows that institutional confidence in...

News: Online bonds mean funds don't have to try another day.
December 2, 2002... Fixed-income trading by pension funds in Europe and the Middle East has jumped nearly 25% this year to more than GBP7.11trn. Also, the proportion of institutions trading government bonds online is up to just over 30%, according to findings...

News: Good equities hide turmoil in south east Asia markets.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2002... Overall good performance in south east Asian equity markets is disguising continuing declines and meagre returns in the region, ratings agency Standard & Poor's (S&P) says. In many markets, sensitivity to interest rates makes positive...

Spotlight: Mistletoe and whine.
December 2, 2002... So the government has decided to release its pensions green paper, promised for the autumn, on 17 December, just before Parliament's Christmas break. It is likely that the reason for the delay - aside from not giving opposition MPs the...

Governance Watch: It's all becoming a blur.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2002... The Manifest database can be a useful tool to reveal facts that may add an extra insight into the knowledge of investors. They may also wish to investigate further them further with companies. For example, there are 12 companies in the...

Opinion: Leader - Green paper should spell out decisive action.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2002... The delay of the pensions green paper until December 17th and the gradual realisation that the government is very unlikely to use it to tackle some of main challenges it faces in pensions, must be depressing news for those involved in...

Opinion: Legal View - The willing victims of the trust busting scammers.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2002... Vulnerable and desparate - these are the members being targeted by the so- called pension liberators. In fact, trust busting is nothing new, but it is on the increase. A typical case would involve a handful of individuals whose sole...

Opinion: Inside View - Surviving the fallout.(The private equity market in Europe )
December 2, 2002... The private equity market in Europe grew dramatically in recent years, driven by the business, stock market and new economy booms of the late 1990s and burgeoning intra-European and transatlantic financial flows. The subsequent decline in...

Feature: A fork in the road.(The move towards defined contribution (DC) schemes)
December 2, 2002... When we think about pensions, the idea that springs to mind is a payment to people once they have retired or reached a certain age. Recently, however, we have seen serious cracks in the fundamental pensions concepts of regularity and security...

Feature: Getting trendy.(Current trends in the custody industry )
December 2, 2002... When I was asked to come up with 1,200 words on current trends in the custody industry I said, "Love to, no problem... but all in 1,200 words?" The truth is if you tried to do justice to all of the topics that have cropped up at one time or...

People on the move: Niman takes a mature approach to gilt porfolios.(Merrill Lynch Investment Managers has appointed Stuart Niman as a fund manager in its sterling fixed income team.)(Brief Article)
December 2, 2002... Merrill Lynch Investment Managers (MLIM) has appointed Stuart Niman as a fund manager in its sterling fixed income team. Joining as a director, Niman will focus on short maturity gilt portfolios and report to Chris Fellingham, managing...

People on the move: Double appointment boost for Hewitt research.(Hewitt Bacon & Woodrow )(Brief Article)
December 2, 2002... Hewitt Bacon & Woodrow (Hewitt) has boosted its investment research team with the recruitment of Ian Peart and Dean Wetton. Peart joins Hewitt from Friends Ivory & Sime (FIS) where he was head of the pan-European equity team. At Hewitt he...

People on the move: Crossley lands construction job at Gartmore.(Gartmore Investment Management has appointed Robert Crossley as senior portfolio constructor in its fixed income team.)(Brief Article)
December 2, 2002... Gartmore Investment Management has appointed Robert Crossley as senior portfolio constructor in its fixed income team. Crossley joins from Cargill, where he worked in the fixed income team for seven years specialising in the "identification...

People on the move: Smyth tackles TCA promotion in new job at ITG Europe.(ITG Europe has appointed Frances Smyth as director of research sales)(Brief Article)
December 2, 2002... Technology-based equity trading services group ITG Europe has appointed Frances Smyth as director of research sales. The newly created post will see Smyth reporting to John Minderides, head of ITG Europe research and strategy to promote the...

News Just In... : NAPF slams plan to cut AGM notice period.(National Association of Pension Funds )
December 2, 2002... Pension funds have slammed a government proposal to reduce the minimum notice periods for company annual general meetings (AGMs). The National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) criticised the proposal to reduce the notice period for AGMs...

News Just In... : Trustees not aware of wind-up buyback benefit.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2002... Trustees of pension schemes in wind-up may be missing a trick by not making full use of mechanisms available to deal with problem guaranteed minimum pensions (GMPs) and other contracting out benefits, a pensions lawyer claimed last week. ...

News: Government scores own goal with the drift to DC.(defined contribution pensions, UK)
December 9, 2002... The drift to defined contribution (DC) pensions is threatening to make a shambles of government plans to cut dependence on state support by future pensioners. The bulk of new scheme members offered DC pensions will be contracted back into...

News: Ernst & Young DB members close to a compromise.(final salary pension scheme, defined benefit plan)(Brief Article)
December 9, 2002... Members of the Ernst & Young final salary pension scheme are close to reaching a compromise deal with their employer in their dispute over the proposed closure of the scheme for active members. The firm announced in January that it intended...

News: Field proposes bill to reform scheme wind-ups.(UK Parliament member Frank Field's Pensions (Winding-up) Bill )(Brief Article)
December 9, 2002... Frank Field MP is attempting to cap the fees of independent trustees as part of a bill aimed at protecting pensions of members caught up in a collapsed pension scheme. His bill proposes to cap fees at 1% of the total value of the fund. ...

News: BP blow could lead to TPA retreat for Aon Consulting.(third-party administration)(Brief Article)
December 9, 2002... Aon Consulting is considering closing down its third-party administration business in Birmingham as part of a commercial review. PW understands the loss of major clients such as the GBP12.5bn BP scheme, which took administration services...

News: Mingle moves from Diageo in career re-think.(Steve Mingle resigns)(Brief Article)
December 9, 2002... Diageo's well-known group pensions and benefits director, Steve Mingle, is to leave the company - and possibly the industry - at the end of the year. Mingle, who is a regular speaker at conferences, is to take a sabbatical and consider his...

News: State Street to manage eco fund for Enviro Agency.(State Street Global Advisors, economically enhanced index fund for UK Environment Agency pension fund)(Brief Article)
December 9, 2002... The Environment Agency pension fund has appointed State Street Global Advisors to manage a specially designed "eco-enhanced" index fund. The fund will be based on specialised company and industry research provided by Innovest Strategic...

News: Scottish & Newcastle places oe128m at low risk with BGI.(Barclays Global Investors)(Brief Article)
December 9, 2002... Scottish & Newcastle Pension Scheme has placed GBP128m with a newly launched actively managed index-linked bond fund by Barclays Global Investors (BGI). The fund is called the Ascent UK Real Return Bond Fund and combines traditional...

News: Challenger pulls out as annuity fails to get FSA approval.(Challenger International Ltd., UK Financial Services Authority)(Brief Article)
December 9, 2002... Australian insurer, Challenger, is to pull out of the UK market due to difficulties in getting a range of new annuities cleared for launch by the Financial Services Authority. Challenger's new range of annuities was to be property-backed,...

News: Self-employed could help close savings gap.(UK pension fund savings gap)(Brief Article)
December 9, 2002... The UK's multi-million savings gap could be closed by as much as GBP2bn if 2.5 milion self-employed workers are given access to the state second pension, the Association of British Insurers (ABI) is to tell government. Mary Francis,...

News: Govt tinkering blamed for oe97.3m training bill.(staff training at UK Dept. for Work and Pensions)(Brief Article)
December 9, 2002... The government's tinkering with the state pension system and an increase in means-tested benefits is to blame for the huge costs of staff training at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), the Conservatives claimed last week. A...

News: Faulkner to take over as NAPF chairman.(Terry Faulkner, National Association of Pension Funds)(Brief Article)
December 9, 2002... A scheme manager has been appointed as chairman of the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) for the first time in four years. Terry Faulkner, current chairman of the NAPF benefits council and group pensions and benefits manager of...

News: DWP claims on Maxwell refuted.(UK Dept. for Work and Pensions on Maxwell pension scheme management by Law Debenture)
December 9, 2002... The independent trustee involved in last week's Maxwell case reacted angrily to suggestions by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) that the shortfall in the fund was down to bad investment decisions. The DWP is adamantly refusing...

News: 1% world blamed for job cuts.(at Royal London Mutual Insurance Society Ltd., Scottish Life Assurance Co.)(Brief Article)
December 9, 2002... More than 600 jobs are to go at Royal London and Scottish Life due to the 1% world in pensions. The life office will increase its focus on the independent financial advice market. It says a strategic review is looking at how to give...

News: Pirc goes online to offer more access.(Pensions Investment Research Consultants)(Brief Article)
December 9, 2002... Corporate governance firm, the Pensions Investment Research Consultants (Pirc), has launched a website service for clients in a move which has been seen as a response to recent criticism that its information was not easily available. Last...

News: S&P lowers Friends' rating.(Standard and Poor's, Friends Provident)(Brief Article)
December 9, 2002... Cost pressure in the UK pensions market has helped force a lowered credit rating for life office Friends Provident. Ratings agency Standard & Poor's downgraded Friends Provident from stable to negative. Although S&P affirmed its...

News: Russell wins British Waterways mandate.(Frank Russell)(Brief Article)
December 9, 2002... The British Waterways pension fund has appointed Frank Russell to manage a GBP80m mandate. The mandate represents 50% of the scheme's total assets and will be invested in a wide range of Russell's multi-manager equity and bond funds. ...

News: Review of army tax blunder.(military pension taxation errors to be investigated by UK government)(Brief Article)
December 9, 2002... The government has done a u-turn over armed forces personnel wrongly taxed on their pensions and agreed to carry out a review of the matter. For 50 years, many former soldiers who retired due to injury, or their widows, have had their...

News: CCC- rating for Equitable Life.(Equitable Life Assurance Society's credit rating)(Brief Article)
December 9, 2002... Equitable Life has had its credit rating lowered to CCC-, with outlook "negative" by the ratings agency Standard & Poor's (S&P). S&P lowered its debt rating on GBP350m of perpetual subordinated notes issued by Equitable Life Finance and...

News: DeAM ditched by West Sussex.(Deutsche Asset Management, West Sussex County Council pension fund, England)
December 9, 2002... The GBP800m West Sussex County Council pension fund has dropped fund manager Deutsche Asset Management (DeAM) following underperformance concerns with its global balanced mandate. The fund manager was required to outperform the local...

News: Left Field - Time to act on wind-ups.(pension funds of firms that cease to exist)
December 9, 2002... Derek Wyatt, the MP for Sittingbourne and Sheppey, brought a number of his constituents to Parliament recently. Each of them had been employed by Allied Steel & Wire (ASW) before the firm announced that it would cease to trade. As a result...

News: ISTC union takes legal advice over ASW wind-up.(Iron and Steel Trade Corporation)
December 9, 2002... A trade union has appointed solicitors to advise on possible legal action against the government that stems from the ASW steel workers' dispute. Thompsons, a law firm strongly associated with the Trades Union Congress (TUC), has been asked...

News: Thorn pensioners force surplus turn-around.(pension surplus)(Brief Article)
December 9, 2002... Thorn pensioners have forced a climb down by their company after it said it was not looking to pursue a modification order to gain part of the scheme surplus. For over a year pensioners have been fighting attempts by Thorn - owned by...

News: Watchdogs outline crisis of confidence.(in UK pension system)
December 9, 2002... There is a crisis of confidence in the pensions system, watchdogs told MPs last week. At the work and pensions select committee into pension reform, the pensions ombudsman, the Pensions Advisory Service (Opas) and the Occupational Pensions...

News: Ombudsman Watch.(pensions)(Column)
December 9, 2002... To give or not to give The raison d'etre of this column is the writings of others and in particular the pensions ombudsman. Like most commentators, I am not above stooping to quote from others too. So this week, having left it too late to...

News: Delegates give thumbs up to equity investment.(Society of Pension Consultants on pension scheme)(Brief Article)
December 9, 2002... Pension scheme assets for beneficiaries who have longer than 10 years to go should be invested 80% or more in equities, said 55.2% of the delegates at the Society of Pension Consultants conference. However 43.1% said there should be a mix of...

News: Pickering backpeddles on radical stance.(Alan Pickering, pensions proposals)(Brief Article)
December 9, 2002... Expectations that upcoming pensions proposals in the green paper and Inland Revenue tax review will disappoint increased last week when Alan Pickering, the government's point man on pensions simplification, said he didn't know if the proposals...

News: Daykin looks to Europe as model for company pensions.(Chris Daykin)
December 9, 2002... Chris Daykin, the sometimes outspoken government actuary, branded the minimum income guarantee as cumbersome and complicated last week. He then urged professionals to push government for higher state pensions, suggesting that the government...

News: Centrica chief announces DB support.(Michael Perry on defined contribution schemes)(Brief Article)
December 9, 2002... A senior business figure gave his support to employer pension funds last week and indicated he would not abandon salary-related schemes. Sir Michael Perry, chairman of Centrica, a company reviewing its pension arrangements, said the idea of...

News: Actuaries and pension funds team up against actuarial liability proposals.
December 9, 2002... Actuaries and pension funds have rounded on accountants for proposing that actuarial liabilities should be included in pension scheme accounts. The move would make scheme underfunding more transparent for members, but actuaries are worried...

News: EFA recommends the abolition of occupational pension tax rules.(Employers Forum on Age)(Brief Article)
December 9, 2002... The Employers Forum on Age (EFA) - which promotes older workers - has called for the scrapping of many of the tax rules affecting occupational pensions. In a submission to the Inland Revenue prior to the publication of its pensions review...

News: Stakeholder aims are way off target.(government flagship pension fund)(Brief Article)
December 9, 2002... Stakeholder has only reached a small fraction of the government's target group according to the financial regulator. Speaking at the select committee into the future of pensions, Michael Folger, director of conduct of business standards at...

News: Rising UK salaries see companies look overseas.(to relocate)(Brief Article)
December 9, 2002... Many UK life and pensions companies believe they should relocate part of their business overseas, a survey shows. Sixty-seven per cent of senior figures are considering the measure, according to third-party outsourcer Marlborough Stirling....

IT Watch: Beyond the firewall - Piecing together the puzzle.(hedge fund management)
December 9, 2002... Hedge fund managers, who often take a highly quantitative approach to investment, have come to rely on sophisticated technology solutions in order to achieve optimal returns. In particular, they demand integrated front to middle office...

IT Watch: Increased flexibility as Sipp is launched online.(Raymond James Investment Services' online self-invested personal pension)
December 9, 2002... An online self-invested personal pension (Sipp) has been launched by Raymond James Investment Services (RJIS) - a European private client business intent on benefiting from the demise of company schemes. The online Sipp offers desktop...

IT Watch: Lynx marketing push nets oe44.5m.(TriAlpha's use of Lynx Financial System Ltd.'s Lynx 4Series software)(Brief Article)
December 9, 2002... An asset management company claims it has added at least GBP44.5m of new business without spending any money on new systems to support administration. TriAlpha, an international asset management company, based in Jersey but founded in...

Governance Watch: Conflicts of interest.(pension fund managers acting as agents for pension fund trustees)(Brief Article)
December 9, 2002... Concerns about the proposed pay package for Jean-Pierre Garnier, the chief executive of GlaxoSmithKline, have raised questions about the conflicts of interests that fund managers who act as agents for pension fund trustees have. When the...

Opinion: Leader - The timebomb that was never really ticking.(the dependency ratio: workers supporting pensioners demographics)(Column)
December 9, 2002... With current worries over pension deficits, scheme wind-ups and the regulatory burden, the question of the demographics of the ageing population seems to have receded of late. Not long ago, there were plenty of learned papers warning of the...

Opinion: Inside View - Plugging the sinking pensions deficit.(UK pension fund deficits)(Column)
December 9, 2002... There are a number of questions that need to be asked about UK pension scheme deficits. Will a pension scheme deficit cause the insolvency of the sponsoring company? Will deficits cause borrowing covenants to be breached? Are dividend...

Special Report: Unchaining the network.(pension data network)
December 9, 2002... I first installed a pension administration system in 1986. It was networked after a fashion: each morning the data was copied between three machines by tape. Although this seems primitive it is salutary to note that a not dissimilar process is...

Special Report: The final frontier.(pension fund automation)
December 9, 2002... Who remembers the song Three Wheels on My Wagon, a hit for the New Christy Minstrels in 1966? Pensions being somewhat less long-term than they once were, perhaps not too many of you do. Those who remember will recall that the number of...

Investment Panel: Beating the index - Discussing exactly what it takes to consistently get one over the index.(pension fund management)(Panel Discussion)
December 9, 2002... For the fourth and final investment panel of 2002, the starting point was whether pension funds can expect to find active managers capable of consistently outperforming the index. From this the discussion moved on to look at manager selection,...

People on the move: Ex-student Slater is a grade A appointment for MGAI research.(Mellon Global Alternative Investments appoints Stuart Slater to senior research analyst)(Brief Article)
December 9, 2002... Mellon Global Alternative Investments (MGAI), the UK asset management subsidiary of Mellon Financial Corporation, has appointed Stuart Slater as a senior research analyst. Based in London, he will report to Derek Stewart and Scott...

People on the move: Robertson takes on admin in Edinburgh.(Julie Robertson, Watson Wyatt's Edinburgh, Scotland, pensions administration)(Brief Article)
December 9, 2002... Consultant Watson Wyatt has appointed Julie Robertson as pensions administrator team leader in its Edinburgh office. She joins from Capita Integrated HR, where she was a deputy supervisor for pensions administration. She was originally with...