In einem Interview des Liechtensteiner Vaterlands mit dem Landtagsvizepräsidenten Ivo Klein äussert sich dieser über die allgemeine Situation der staatlichen Kasse im aktuellen Umfeld. Bezüglich der anstehenden Revision plädiert er für eine Verschiebung.
International
Isländische Pensionsfonds erwägen Kaupthing-Kauf
Fünf isländische Pensionsfonds erwägen, einen Mehrheitsposten an der in der vergangenen Woche verstaatlichten Kaupthing Bank zu erwerben. Hintergrund für das Interesse der Pensionsfonds sind deren durch die Verstaatlichung von Kaupthing verlorenen Anteile an der Bank.
Handelsblatt
D: "Lebensversicherungen und Pensionskassen im Sog der Finanzkrise"
«Die Lebensversicherer und Pensionskassen hängen voll im Risiko bei möglichen Bankenpleiten. Ein knappes Drittel der 690 Milliarden Euro Anlegergelder haben die Lebensversicherer allein in Bankschuldverschreibungen gesteckt, dazu summieren sich Schuldschein- und Darlehnsforderungen gegen die Geldhäuser und Aktienpakete. Knapp ein Prozent, 6,5 Milliarden Euro, stecken in Private-Equity- oder Hedgefondsanlagen, die dick im Minus stehen und denen wegen der Kreditklemme das Geld ausgeht. Weitere acht Prozent entfallen auf Unternehmensanleihen, deren Kurse ebenfalls unter Druck stehen.
Genau aufschlüsseln will kein Versicherer seine konkreten Risiken und Positionen. Selbst die Frage nach einer groben Verteilung der Anlagen beantwortet Zurich Deutscher Herold nicht, immerhin Nummer drei am deutschen Markt. Man „möchte dazu derzeit keine Auskunft geben“, hieß es bei der Zurich in Bonn», schreibt die deutsche WirtschaftsWoche.
WirtschaftsWoche
Calpers fund down 25 percent for year
The largest public pension fund in the U.S. lost almost $67 billion in 12 months, more than 25 percent of its value, as stock markets tumbled.
The market value of the California Public Employees‘ Retirement System declined to $193.7 billion as of Oct. 9, from $260.6 billion a year earlier. Between Sept. 15, when Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. filed for bankruptcy, and last week, the fund’s stock holdings declined by $12.4 billion to $36.8 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Pensions and retirement accounts, which tend to be heavily invested in stocks, may have lost as much as $2 trillion since 2007, the Congressional Budget Office reported Oct. 7. In the 12 months through Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 40 percent, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, 42 percent.
insideBayArea
WSJ: "Funds of Hedge Funds are Under Pressure"
It may be premature to write the epitaph for funds of hedge funds, but people in the industry are giving them a less-than-glowing prognosis after a year in which the funds have on average declined in value by 11%.
Fund-of-hedge-funds managers have historically decided who gets 40% of the hedge-fund industry’s $1.9 trillion of assets to manage, the idea being that they can more efficiently differentiate between good hedge funds and also-rans. This year, however, their track record hasn’t been good.
Wall Street Journal
Times: "Pension fund shortfall could widen to £50bn after share rout"
Britain’s leading blue-chip retirement schemes could be faced with a £15 billion funding shortfall as a direct result of the rout in share markets, according to a leading pensions expert. Rashpal Bhabra, head of corporate consulting for Watson Wyatt, a pensions consultant, told The Times that the assets of FTSE 100 final-salary pension schemes would have fallen by about £17 billion as equity markets dived yesterday. He said that huge drops in the stock market over the past five days could be responsible for wiping about £50 billion off the value of pension scheme assets in only a week.
Watson Wyatt reckons that FTSE blue-chip final-salary schemes remain in surplus – about £30 billion before yesterday’s slide. However, if markets continue their nose dive, the pressure on their funding position can only get worse.
Mercer, a rival consultant, said that rising yields on bond investments would have offset some of the equity movements. However, it calculated that the turbulence would have pushed schemes from a £2 billion surplus at the end of last month into a deficit of about £3 billion.
TimesOnline
GB: "Stock market fall hits pension pots"
The 30 per cent fall in the stock market over the past 12 months is bad news for those coming up to retirement. Since a large chunk of pension fund cash is invested in equities, a fall in share prices translates into a drop in future retirement income.
The pain is most likely to be felt by those in a money-purchase scheme, where the pension is entirely dependent on the size of the pension pot that has been built up. It is estimated there are up to 20 million people with an occupational or personal pension of this kind.
TimesOnline
IPE: "Dutch pension assets down a fifth since Q2"
The Dutch central bank and pension fund regulator De Nederlandse Bank (DNB) has revealed Dutch pension funds’ active capital has dropped by 20% to €600bn in less than three months. This latest figure stands in contrast to the €751bn of total pension fund assets which Dutch pension funds still had at the end of the second quarter this year, according to a DNB’s quarterly report published last month.
IPE
Finanzkrise kostet US-Pensionskassen zwei Billionen Dollar
Die Pensionskassen in den USA leiden schwer unter den der Finanzmarktkrise. Insgesamt hätten die Pensionskassen in den vergangenen 15 Monaten zwei Billionen Dollar (1,47 Billionen Euro) verloren, so Peter Orszag, Leiter der Rechnungsbehörde im Kongress (CBO), vor einem Ausschuss des Repräsentantenhauses. Der Ausschuss untersucht derzeit, wie sich die Immobilien- und Bankenkrise auf die Pensionskassen auswirkt. Viele Arbeitnehmer würden wegen der Verluste wahrscheinlich gezwungen, auf größere Konsumausgaben zu verzichten und mehr zu sparen oder auch später in Rente zu gehen.
Handelsblatt / AP
NYT: "Turning 65? Maybe It’s Not Time to Quit"
Whether through desire or necessity, more older workers are staying in their jobs longer or returning after retiring, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. According to the bureau, the number of employed people who were 65 and older doubled from 1977 to 2007, compared with a 59 percent increase for those 16 and older.This increase is not explained by any skewing effect of the baby-boom population — those born between 1946 and 1964 — because no baby boomers have even turned 65 yet.
Hedgefunds: "Bloodbath ahead"
The biggest performance dispersion among hedge funds and funds of funds in six years has set the stage for what some predict will be a six-month-long bloodbath. Sources said they expect the body count to total as many as 2,000 hedge funds and 500 hedge funds of funds between now and the end of March as investors redeem assets from the poorest performers and weakest managers, and move into funds managed by strong, institutionally oriented firms.
Data from Hedge Fund Research Inc., Chicago, showed that for the 12-month period ended June 30, there was a 75 percentage point difference between the average performance of the industry’s top and bottom deciles.
Pensions&Investment
Credit crisis dampens pension funds’ use of derivatives to hedge risk
(Watson Wyatt) The use of derivatives by UK pension funds to hedge risk has fallen significantly so far in 2008 because of the ongoing credit crisis. The result is a shrinking UK inflation-linked market for end users (excluding intra-bank trades) which is only expected to be in the range of £20 billion -£25 billion this year, having reached £35 billion in 2007. This marks a pause in a rapid growth trend which started in 2004 when the estimated size of the UK market was £3 billion.
Watson Wyatt
New UK pension scheme rules out hedge funds
(Reuters) Britain’s new Personal Accounts scheme, a plan for savers without a company pension, is «highly unlikely» to invest in hedge funds and private equity, said the head of the authority in charge of setting up the scheme. The investment portfolio of the Personal Accounts scheme, which is set to grow to 150 billion pounds ($279 billion) in 50 years‘ time, has not been decided, although the scheme has said its default fund is likely to consist mainly of index-tracking funds.
Reuters
McKinsey Quarterly: Serving aging baby boomers
In less than a decade, all of the baby boomers will be 51 to 70 years old. This generation’s size and tendency to make new rules have created business opportunities since child boomers bought hula hoops in the 1950s. Now it’s time for businesses to prepare for the changing needs of the older boomers, who are about to become the largest and wealthiest over-50 consumer group in US history. Boomers will account for roughly 40 percent of US spending by 2015 and for a disproportionate share of the growth and consumption in industries ranging from consumer electronics and clothing to home furnishings, restaurants, and, of course, health care.
Despite the economic power of boomers, many aging ones face the prospect of shattered expectations. A generation that lived through unprecedented prosperity and has correspondingly high hopes for its golden years must cope with significant financial, physical, and social challenges. New McKinsey research reveals that 60 percent of boomers won’t be able to maintain a lifestyle close to their current one without continuing to work, that 60 percent of older boomers already suffer from chronic health problems, and that by 2015 there will be 21 million single 51- to 70-year-old boomers—more than twice as many single households as the previous generation had at the same age. Not surprising, 46 percent of boomers fear ending up alone, and 43 percent already are frustrated that they aren’t leading the lives they expected to.
McKinsey
Global Pensions: Pension funds halt lending
Pension funds in the US and Europe have restricted their securities lending activities as regulators in the US and UK announced a clampdown on short selling of financial stocks.