Pensions Week articles from October 2002

Pensions Week archives from October 2002

News: ICI pensions fraud is tip of iceberg.(Brief Article)
October 7, 2002... Up to five people have been arrested for allegedly defrauding the ICI pension scheme in an ongoing anti-fraud operation at the GBP6.9bn fund. The "four or five" individuals allegedly concealed the death of pensioners and continued to claim...

News: NAPF to call for increase in state pension benefits.(Brief Article)
October 7, 2002... The National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) is expected today to call for an increase in the basic state pension as part of proposals for reform. It is believed the NAPF will call for at least GBP100 for every person over 70 with a...

News: All to play for as Sarah Lee fund up for grabs.(Brief Article)
October 7, 2002... The GBP600m Sara Lee pension fund has put its entire fund out to tender, following the merger of its pension schemes earlier this year. The scheme currently uses seven fund managers including Legal & General and Standard Life. Alan Brown,...

News: Court battle over right to use surplus for benefits increase.(Brief Article)
October 7, 2002... An employer is chasing trustees through the courts for using the whole of a scheme surplus to increase benefits. Lonrho Africa Trade & Finance, which owns the John Holt pension scheme, argues that the scheme surplus should have been...

News: Pan-European pensions move closer.
October 7, 2002... A UK pensions tax test case was given the green light last week as the European Court of Justice ruled in favour of Danner and brought the prospect of common European tax laws on pensions closer. The case involved a member who contributed...

News: Out-of-favour UBS makes oe821m quarter comeback.
October 7, 2002... One of the UK's biggest value managers has picked up GBP821m of new business in 2Q this year following a dramatic turnaround in performance. UBS Global Asset Management, formerly known in the UK as value manager Phillips & Drew (P&D), has...

News: Pensions law cluttered by contradictory rulings.(Brief Article)
October 7, 2002... Contradictions between High Court rulings and pensions ombudsman decisions have left pensions law unclear, consultants say. Hewitt Bacon & Woodrow (HBW) argued that following High Court dismissals of earlier ombudsman decisions on pension...

News: Inland Revenue uncovers fresh tax-free conversion scam.(Brief Article)
October 7, 2002... The Inland Revenue is understood to be investigating a further company over pensions liberation - a 'scam' that converts pension savings into an immediate tax-free lump sum before retirement. Companies that offer these transfers charge...

News: SWIP "feeding frenzy" slowdown as performance ups.(Brief Article)
October 7, 2002... Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP) said the "feeding frenzy" it experienced from other managers is over now that investment performance is on the upturn. SWIP's UK pooled fund returns have steadily risen in the past few months...

News: North Yorks dumps Invesco/Schroders.(Brief Article)
October 7, 2002... The GBP650m North Yorkshire County Council has ditched Invesco and Schroders in a major overhaul of its balanced portfolios. The fund has awarded a GBP150m brief to Barclays Global Investors in place of Invesco's GBP170m global balanced...

News: Pension funds take big City offices gamble.
October 7, 2002... Pension funds have taken their biggest gamble on City of London office investment in a decade, at a time when rents are shrinking and speculative property building is growing. But property bulls say the investment is sound, even though City...

News: Property - Bt goes shopping.(Brief Article)
October 7, 2002... The British Telecom Pension Scheme has purchased a 50% interest in a multi- million pound shopping centre portfolio. MEPC's portfolio was purchased by Hermes Property Asset Manage ment for GBP115m on behalf of the scheme, to be held jointly...

News: Property - On the up for co-ownership.(Donaldsons owns almost 40 percent of shopping centers)(Brief Article)
October 7, 2002... Nearly 40% of all investments in shopping centres are jointly owned, according to the latest research by property consultant Donaldsons. The figure is significantly higher compared with four years ago when of 4% of investments in shopping...

News: Labour heeds Caparo strikers.(Brief Article)
October 7, 2002... The secretary of state for work and pensions said workers were right to strike in defence of their retirement benefits. At Labour's annual conference in Blackpool on Tuesday, the work and pensions secretary Andrew Smith added his support to...

News: Sackers responds to soaring DC demands with new unit.(Brief Article)
October 7, 2002... Pensions law firm Sacker & Partners has formed a specialist unit aimed to deal with clients considering a switch from final salary to money purchase schemes. The unit - Schemes in transition - has been developed to help cope with demands...

News: PW poll: employers support flexible tax rules.
October 7, 2002... Britain's top employers would welcome a change in pensions tax law that would promote older workers, according to a PW snap survey of 20 the largest 100 companies. PW polled a fifth of the FTSE-100 index to find out if they would oppose a...

News: The double-edged sword of retirement.(Brief Article)
October 7, 2002... Allowing people to work into retirement with the same company that they draw their pension from is not just a straightforward solution to pensioner hardship, longevity or ageism in the workforce, believes David Bell, director for human...

News: Sting in the tale - Dazed and confused.(Industry Overview)
October 7, 2002... I've just come back from the Labour Party conference in Blackpool where we held a fringe meeting on pensions simplification. It was a good time to be at the party conference talking about pensions. The night before our fringe meeting, the...

News: D&T survey reveals pan-Euro vision flawed.(Deloitte and Touche)
October 7, 2002... As the prospect of pan-European pensions took a step closer last week (see Danner on p2), a report by a leading financial services firm warned a single strategy for pan-European savings would be fraught with dangers. Germany was nominated...

News: BGI quant fund bucks market falls.(Barclay's Global Investors)(Brief Article)
October 7, 2002... The Barclays Global Investors' UK equity fund has managed to outperform the FTSE All Share index by 1.06% in 3Q. The fund manager's advanced active fund has achieved annualised returns of 2.4% in the past year and 2.6% since inception in 1992....

News: Standard Life with-profit slashed by 10%.(Brief Article)
October 7, 2002... Europe's largest mutual life assurance company has had to cut with-profits final bonus rates as market falls continue to hit funds. Final bonus rates were last set in February this year but payouts have been slashed by around 10% to...

News: Fixed-term workers to inflate pension costs.(Brief Article)
October 7, 2002... Workers with fixed-term contracts are entitled to belong to company pension schemes following new rules. The fixed-term regulations, which came into force last Tuesday, will give fixed-term employees the right to be treated equally to...

News: Law lord turns on ombudsman.(Lord Scott of Foscote)
October 7, 2002... A law lord has criticised the pensions ombudsman for accusing trustees of maladministration, even when trust law has not been breached. Lord Scott of Foscote said trustees faced enough difficulty in reaching decisions and exercising...

News: Ombudsman Watch.(Column)
October 7, 2002... Judges Talking A couple of weeks ago, I heard Ruth Bader-Ginsburg speak. After talking on her chosen subject, she took questions for an hour or so. The audience was captivated by the charismatic presence of this five-foot-high 69-year-old....

News: UK equities prove to have stamina in the long run.(Barclays Global Investors report)(Brief Article)
October 7, 2002... Recent market volatility will not stop UK equities outperforming UK bonds over the next decade, one fund manager claimed. Barclays Global Investors (BGI) stated that equities will outperform bonds by 3.75% over the next 10 years. This...

News: Regulator out of blocks on Equitable mis-selling.(Equitable Life)
October 7, 2002... The financial ombudsman has informed around 2,000 former members of Equitable Life's with-profits funds that investigations into mis-selling will now start - nearly two years after the first complaint. The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS)...

News: LAPFF scores 33% success on exec contracts.(Local Authority Pension Fund Forum, companies have restricted contracts of executive directors to one year)(Brief Article)
October 7, 2002... Local authority pension funds warned companies to adhere to its corporate governance engagement campaign or face negative voting at shareholder meetings. The stark warning came after the Local Authority Pension Fund Forum (LAPFF), said it had...

News: Equities fall out of favour in Europe.(Greenwich Associates report; European institutions reduce equity portfolios )(Brief Article)
October 7, 2002... Institutional investors in Europe are pulling out of equities in their droves, with North America suffering the worst fallout. According to research consultancy Greenwich Associates, European institutions no longer favour equities and have...

News: AXA sheds mandates to "free up resources".(AXA Investment Managers wants to focus on United Kingdom equities, fixed income)(Brief Article)
October 7, 2002... AXA Investment Managers (AXA IM) has ditched GBP3.5bn worth of global and European equity mandates in a bid to focus on its core business functions. The fund manager has passed the mandates, which affect UK clients, to its affiliate...

Governance Watch: Ascertaining the true turn-out.(Manifest research on proxy voting levels )(Brief Article)
October 7, 2002... Proxy voting levels are still falling short of the government's recommended 60% of possible votes research by Manifest has shown. Overall voting levels have risen from 52.72% in 2001 to 55.86% this year. But votes within the FTSE-100 are only...

Opinion: Leader - Flexible enough to change with the times.
October 7, 2002... Last week was a better week for UK pensions as the Labour minister responsible for work and pensions promised the annual party conference that pension rules would be relaxed to allow greater flexibility for employees and employers. Andrew...

Opinion: Personal View - Living too long or dying too soon.
October 7, 2002... "By providing financial protection against the major 18th and 19th-century risk of early death, life insurance became the biggest financial industry of that century. Providing financial protection against the new risk of not dying soon enough...

Opinion: Letter from America - US investors prepare for post Goldilocks economy bond world.(Industry Overview)
October 7, 2002... In a world of sinking stock prices and corporate scandals, are bonds a safe haven? American investors seem to think so, pouring a record US$12.2bn into bond funds in July, up from US$11.5bn in June, according to Lipper. Meanwhile, they pulled...

Opinion: Letters - A danger to the public.(Brief Article)
October 7, 2002... I had to read the article a few times before I believed it. Mr Alfron of the Financial Services Authority (FSA) thinks that because stakeholder is a failure, we need more regulation (PW 23.9.02). It has failed, as some of us in the industry...

Opinion: Letters - Answers misleading.(Brief Article)
October 7, 2002... I read your survey of fund manager efforts in the field of socially responsible investment. It does appear that fund houses have stepped up their SRI practices since the government egged them to a few years ago. However, I don't really...

Opinion: Letters - Complete tax-free balderdash.(Brief Article)
October 7, 2002... So the Inland Revenue - if you are to believe some newspapers - is to scrap the tax-free lump sum benefit on pensions. Well, first, I do not believe that the Government would seriously do this as it would be political suicide and the end of...

People on the move: My first job - Mick Brant, managing director, Russell/ Mellon CAPS.
October 7, 2002... What was your first job? Apprentice electrician. What made you stand out over other applicants? Nepotism - my father, grandfather, godfather and uncle all worked for the same company. Did it offer a pension? Not as an...

People on the move: Callis and Kane go to Hymans.(Brief Article)
October 7, 2002... Actuary and consultant Hymans Robertson has appointed two senior consultants - Andrew Callis and Peter Kane. Callis joins the firm's Birmingham office from KPMG where he will concentrate on the development of the employee benefit practice....

People on the move: Gartmore moves Young.(Brief Article)
October 7, 2002... Gartmore Investment Management has appointed Shamus Young as head of global consulting group. In his new role, he will take on responsibility for managing all aspects of Gartmore's relationships with investment consultants and...

People on the move: Bhutani full of energy at CSAM.(Credit Suisse Asset Management appoints Jay Bhutani, energy analyst, European equity research team)(Brief Article)
October 7, 2002... Credit Suisse Asset Management (CSAM) has appointment Jay Bhutani as an energy analyst in the European equity research team. He joins CSAM from Lehman Brothers where he was a senior oil and gas analyst. Bhutani will provide research...

People on the move: Rains falls for Morley.(Brief Article)
October 7, 2002... Morley Fund Management has promoted Peter Rains as head of alternative investments. He will take on the role in addition to his current one as head of fixed income. Rains has worked with Morley since 1988 and was previously head of global...

People on the move: Invesco invests in Yerbury.(Brief Article)
October 7, 2002... Fund manager Invesco has promoted Bob Yerbury as chief investment officer (CIO) for the UK arm of both Invesco Perpetual and Invesco Institutional. He was previously CIO for Invesco Perpetual alone. Yerbury has over 30 years experience...

People on the move: SWIP swipes Chappell.(Scottish Widows Investment Partnership recruits Phil Chappell, investment director)(Brief Article)
October 7, 2002... Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP) has recruited Phil Chappell as investment director. He joins from Schroder Investment Management where he was director - US equities. At Schroders, he managed a range of US funds and a team of...

Whistle Blower: Webb caught in Equitable advice double whammy.(Brief Article)
October 7, 2002... Wb's spies discovered last week that Liberal Democrat work and pensions spokesman Steve Webb has discovered you can get caught twice on advice over pensions. Before becoming an MP, Webb worked at the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS)...

Whistle Blower: MPs also feeling harsh winds of equity bear market on pensions.(Brief Article)
October 7, 2002... Wb was pleased to hear that MPs are not the out-of-touch self-serving improved-accrual-rate-voting cabal that others have suggested in the past. Instead, it was shown last week that, like us mere mortals, the inhabitants of Westminster...

Whistle Blower: Shock horror: MHRC warns poor management rife at DC schemes.(Brief Article)(Industry Overview)
October 7, 2002... Defined contribution pension plans are not meeting employee and employer expectations due to poor management, according to a survey by Mercer Human Resource Consulting (see page 2). It is unlikely that many of you are falling backwards in...

News just In... : BA pensioners take dispute to ombudsman.
October 7, 2002... A ten-year dispute over a pension fund surplus is set to go to the pensions ombudsman after trustees rejected pensioners' complaints that a breach of trust happened in the allocation of funds. British Airways (BA) pensioners claimed the...

News just In... : Tories grasp on Serps reaches beyond office.(Brief Article)
October 7, 2002... The former Conservative government's cut to state earnings-related pension scheme (Serps) for widows and widowers took effect on Sunday. The measure stems from 1986 when the Tories reduced the amount of Serps to 50% for a person widowed...

Supplement: Employee benefits - The road to retirement just got longer.(Brief Article)
October 7, 2002... Almost one-seventh of workers believe they will have to work beyond 65 years of age to fund a decent retirement, according to research published last month by a pensions provider. Plunging stock markets and an acceleration in the closure of...

Supplement: Employee benefits - I swear to comply with stakeholder rules.(Brief Article)
October 7, 2002... The occupational pensions regulator set out the charging requirements for stakeholder pension schemes in an exposure draft last week. The guide is aimed at stakeholder pension scheme managers, trustees and their advisers and describes...

Supplement: Employee benefits - Hundreds of thousands contract into Serps.(Brief Article)
October 7, 2002... Over 400,000 people now belong to employer-sponsored stakeholder pension schemes, according to latest figures from the Inland Revenue. Of the 440,000 members, a huge 350,000 are contracted into the state earnings related pension scheme...

Supplement: Employee benefits - Keeping benefits in check.(Industry Overview)
October 7, 2002... Most UK employers invest a significant amount of time and resource in providing their staff with an employee benefits package. Ideally, this would meet the objectives of the employer as well as being tailored to the specific needs of the...

News: Nine-year low for Scot pension funds.(Scottish local authority pension funds)(Brief Article)
October 14, 2002... Scottish local authority pension funds will see the worst funding levels in nine years due to over-optimistic actuarial assumptions in 1999. Most Scottish pension funds, which have their valuations carried out a year later than those in...

News: SSgA predicts bear market will break leading insurer.(State Street Global Advisors Inc., prospects for insurance companies)(Brief Article)
October 14, 2002... As the prospect of war between the US and Iraq mounts and stock markets continue to be cowed, there is growing concern among financial experts that a leading insurer could be about to go bust. The FTSE 100 index has plunged by almost 30%...

News: IFA expresses concern on stakeholder liability.(Lord Hunt, chairman, Association of Independent Financial Advisers)(Brief Article)
October 14, 2002... Lord Hunt, chairman of the Association of Independent Financial Advisers, has told the Treasury that the main concern over Ron Sandler's proposals for a suite of stakeholder products is how to ring-fence liability. The government held a...

News: Women face triple whammy.(PricewaterhouseCoopers L.L.P. report; lost earnings, pension contributions for women who take career breaks, return-to-work lower income level, lower retirement annuity rate)
October 14, 2002... Women in their twenties will face non-state pensions worth only 60% of those for men, according to a report published last week by a financial services giant. The PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) report warned that inadequate savings are...

News: PSolve to trim the Forest.(London Borough, Waltham Forest pension fund appoints PSolve)
October 14, 2002... The GBP325m London Borough of Waltham Forest pension fund has appointed PSolve, the consulting arm of Punter Southall & Co, to act as its investment consultant. The consultant has been appointed to help review the fund's investment...

News: Workers charged up to strike.(Transport and General Workers' Union strike action against Yuasa Automotive Batteries (Europe) Ltd.)
October 14, 2002... The manufacturing industry is facing a fresh series of strikes following the government's recent support for industrial action over pension rights. Yuasa Automotive Batteries was last week hit with industrial action after announcing the...

News: Deutsche goes solo on Dumfries.(Deutsche Asset Management re-appointed by Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, Council pension fund)(Brief Article)
October 14, 2002... The GBP255m Dumfries & Galloway Council pension fund has re-appointed Deutsche Asset Management as its sole fund manager. Deutsche was appointed under a new benchmark and with a clear separation of duties from the custodial element of the...

News: London's calling for Lothian.(Standard Life Investments Ltd., Lothian Pension Fund invests in industrial property, development projects)(Brief Article)
October 14, 2002... Lothian Pension Fund has increased its exposure to the south east property market following an overhaul of the scheme's property portfolio. The fund has cut its exposure to offices in favour of industrial property and development projects. ...

News: Union plays tax card to Treasury.(Scottish Trade and General Workers union officials ask Treasury to stop taxing bus pensioners' payments, Scottish Bus Group pension fund)(Brief Article)
October 14, 2002... Scottish union officials met the Treasury last week to demand it stops taxing payments to bus pensioners. Following its success in its long running campaign to return the surplus from the Scottish Bus Group pension fund to members of the...

News: Barings gets oe165m Asia cash injection.(Baring Private Equity Partners Asia, Fund II, Asian investment opportunities)(Brief Article)
October 14, 2002... Baring Private Equity Partners Asia has closed its 'Fund II' after investors allocated GBP165m. The fund will invest in China, Korea, Japan, India and Singapore and is one of the largest private equity funds raised in the region this year....

News: Mellon reaps the juice from large US companies.(Mellon Global Investments introduces United States large companies value portfolio)(Brief Article)
October 14, 2002... Mellon Global Investments has launched a value fund investing solely in large US companies. The US large companies value portfolio, which will be managed by Mellon's value specialist Boston Asset Management, aims to identify undervalued...

News: Actuaries admit Dimson to boost economic links.(Institute of Actuaries admits Elroy Dimson)(Brief Article)
October 14, 2002... The Institute of Actuaries (IoA) has admitted a leading financial economist to its profession in a bid to strengthen its links with the economics industry. Elroy Dimson, a professor at the London Business School, has joined the IoA...

News: Bear market won't maul old hands.(investment performance determining factor is experience of fund manager)
October 14, 2002... Fund manager experience is revealing itself as the determining factor in investment performance as the bear market crawls relentlessly onwards, analysts say. Standard & Poor's (S&P), the ratings agency, said the current results of European...

News: Three month downturn sees fund managers hit 12 year low.(PricewaterhouseCoopers L.L.P., Confederation of British Industry financial services survey)(Brief Article)
October 14, 2002... The fund management industry has seen the largest fall in overall profitability in 12 years. The latest financial services survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Confederation of British Industry showed a steep decline in overall...

News: 55% of schemes moving away from MFR.(Hymans Robertson survey; occupational final salary pension plans, minimum funding requirement)(Brief Article)
October 14, 2002... Over half of large occupational schemes are calculating transfers above the minimum funding requirement (MFR) according to a survey. Actuary Hymans Robertson found that of those questioned, 78% of schemes were reacting to recent changes to...

News: Ombudsman in MFR wind-up attack.(David Laverick speaks at Pensions Management Institute meeting, minimum funding requirement)
October 14, 2002... Pension scheme members are being "short-changed" under current regulations, according to the pensions ombudsman. David Laverick said the minimum funding requirement (MFR) needs to be strengthened in order to protect members and their...

News: Hedge funds are tops.(Hennessee Group L.L.C. report)(Brief Article)
October 14, 2002... Hedge funds produced a negative return of 1.3% during September but continue to outstrip the struggling equity markets, according to the latest figures from consultant The Hennesee Group. Although hedge funds were slightly down for the...

News: Shareholders shy away from voting.(Pensions and Investment Research Consultants report)(Brief Article)
October 14, 2002... Shareholder voting turnout has risen by a paltry 4% in the past year despite government efforts to encourage more investor intervention. Corporate governance specialist Pensions & Investment Research Consultants (Pirc) found that the...

News: BP appoints Innovest as SRI watchdog.(BP Investments, Innovest Strategic Value Advisors; socially responsible investing )(Brief Article)
October 14, 2002... One of the UK's largest pension funds has employed an independent sustainability research company to ascertain the environmental and ethical risks to its portfolio. BP Investments, the investment management arm of the GBP12.5bn BP pension...

News: Left Field - A regular wind-up.(rules governing pension funds; company liabilities and pension schemes)
October 14, 2002... Winding-up must rank as one of the more mind-numbing topics in the pensions field - but, within a year or so, I bet it will be one of the more talked- about pension topics among an agitated public. Winding-up is about the rules governing...

News: SSgA pensions asset base soars to oe18.8bn.(State Street Global Advisors Inc. managing United Kingdom pension fund assets)
October 14, 2002... A leading international passive manager has seen dramatic growth in its active offerings this year as pension funds pay more attention to the trade- off between risks and returns. The manager plans to launch a range of up to five pooled...

News: IFAs to get occupational pensions help.(independent financial advisors; London and Caledonian Trustees)(Brief Article)
October 14, 2002... A third-party administrator has teamed up with a professional trustee body to help independent financial advisors (IFAs) target the occupational pensions market. Michael Kirk & Partners, the third-party administrator, and Pensions...

News: Feedback spurs MFR stretch.(Occupational Pensions Regulatory Authority changes to schemes guidance for minimum funding requirement )(Brief Article)
October 14, 2002... The Occupational Pensions Regulatory Authority (Opra) has made changes to guidance for schemes applying to extend minimum funding requirement (MFR) timescales. The amendments result from feedback received from consultation and changes to...

News: Opra striving towards perfection.(Occupational Pensions Regulatory Authority response to quinquennial review )
October 14, 2002... The pensions regulator wants to cut the number of schemes by pooling or centralising funds in order to make its role more effective. It also said more powers should be granted to the regulator over financial advisers and life companies. ...

News: Ombudsman Watch.(Lord Scott's lecture )
October 14, 2002... The Supreme Court Last week I wrote about the possibility of the elevation of the first woman to our Supreme Court - The House of Lords. To date no appeal from a determination of the ombudsman has reached the House of Lords. However, as PW...

News: Conservative party conference - Means tested set to rocket by 2040.(Brief)(Brief Article)
October 14, 2002... The Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR) joined in the attack against the pensions credit and warned that around 75% of pensioners will be on means tested benefits by 2040. At the Tory conference in Bournemouth, IPPR research fellow...

News: Conservative party conference - Willets: Tories can crack the crisis.
October 14, 2002... The Conservative party promised to tackle the pensions crisis if it came to power at the next election. Speaking to delegates in Bournemouth last Tuesday, shadow secretary of state for work and pensions David Willetts said the challenge of...

News: Conservative party conference - Bee stings government's sticky pensions situation.(Brief Article)
October 14, 2002... The public has been badly served by the government and industry over pensions, the conference was told. Scottish Life head of pensions development Steve Bee told delegates that the complexity of the pensions system had lead to people being...

News: Conservative party conference - Labour drops bomb on war time savings culture, says Brazier.(Value of saving)
October 14, 2002... The latest shadow pensions minister accused the government of destroying the culture of saving that has grown up in Britain since the Second World War. Speaking at the Conservative party conference on Tuesday, Julian Brazier said that the...

Governance Watch: The knock-on effect.(Sarbanes-Oxley Act challenged by Patricia Hewitt )(Brief Article)
October 14, 2002... The US law, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, designed to clean up corporate America came under fire last week from the secretary of state for trade and industry, Patricia Hewitt. In a speech to business leaders she suggested that the legislation...

Opinion: Leader - Safe as houses - not very.(investment companies face grim financial outlook)
October 14, 2002... Rarely has the outlook for investment houses been more pessimistic. The prospect of further falls on equity markets, worsening economic news, even fewer acquisitions and the increased pressure on boards to deliver shareholder value all point to...

Opinion: Custody View - Keeping the finger on the pulse.(pension fund management)
October 14, 2002... During these volatile, falling stockmarkets, the need for customised real- time information is paramount. In the case of pension funds, trustees are not only looking at the asset side of their balance sheets, but are increasingly seeking up to...