Eliot Spitzer’s prostitution travails engendered no sympathy from the money management community. “The joke is that all the champagne is gone from lower Manhattan. You can’t find a bottle anywhere as people in financial services have been very busy toasting his demise,” said Theodore L. Disabato, chief investment officer of consultant Stratford Advisory Group Inc., Chicago.
International
Guardian: Can we survive the coming storm?
The global financial meltdown will affect pensions both by hitting the performance of already battered funds but, perhaps more significantly for the long term, by further denting consumer confidence. Pensions have been mired in controversy for years, dogged first by mis-selling scandals and then the collapse of pensions giant Equitable Life. All this means that pensions provision has become more expensive, so much so that large numbers of companies have scrapped once-generous final salary pension schemes, or closed them to new members amid fears that they could be crushed by the weight of future liabilities. According to the National Association of Pension Funds, 70 per cent of final salary schemes are now closed to new employees compared to 17 per cent in 2001.
Can we survive the coming storm? | Business | The Observer
Europäische Union/EFTA: Formular der Verbindungsstelle
Gemäss den Mitteilungen Nr. 96 Rz 567 S. 3-4 kann eine Person im Falle der definitiven Ausreise aus der Schweiz in einen EU- oder EFTA-Staat den Nachweis der Nichtunterstellung durch die zuständige Behörde des Staates beibringen, in dem sie sich niederlassen will, um die Barauszahlung der gesamten Austrittsleistung (obligatorischer und überobligatorischer Teil) zu erlangen. Kann kein solcher Nachweis der Nichtunterstellung beigebracht werden, so kann seit dem 1. Juni 2007 der obligatorische Teil der Austrittsleistung nicht mehr bar bezogen werden.
Ein Antragsformular für die Abklärung der Sozialversicherungspflicht in der EU/EFTA steht bei der Verbindungsstelle zur Verfügung unter folgender Internet-Adresse:
http://www.sfbvg.ch/de/verbindungsstelle/de_verbindung_bar_grund.htm
Hewitt says 80 pct of pension managers selected unconstrained equity in 2007
Hewitt Associates said 80 pct of its pension fund clients‘ manager selections last year were for unconstrained equity investments with either a UK or global focus. A third of the 150 investment mandates the consultancy advised on last year also employed an unconstrained equity approach, it said. So-called ‚unconstrained‘ investment mandates give the manager some leeway with regards to meeting and following underlying benchmarks, Hewitt said.
Thomson Investment Management News
FT: Pension schemes revolution needs careful planning
The decay of the old pension fund model, it seems, is gaining pace. In the UK, Goldman Sachs is the latest firm to buy out a corporate pension scheme, that of the leisure group Rank. More important, the first such buy-out fund was last week launched in the US, thus taking a British phenomenon on to the world stage.
FT.com / Columnists / Tony Jackson
IPE: EU-Commission issues two surveys in fight for pensions portability
More artillery has arrived on the battleground where the EU is still fighting for pan-European legislation on the portability of supplementary, non-state pensions for employees. The weapons recently wheeled into place by the European Commission takes the form of two heavyweight studies. These include existing national business practices, measures of how long people stay in their jobs, how many move across frontiers and how often.
The pensions portability directive, which would facilitate the transfer of employees’ pension rights, was blocked in the Council of the EU when national ministers met at the end of last year. The deadlock – following years of wrangling – was caused by a German objection (backed by Luxembourg) to reducing to less than five years the period an employee needs to stay in a scheme before acquiring pension rights, the vesting period. Now, the issue has fallen into the hands of the Slovenian six-month EU presidency, which is said to be a keen supporter of overcoming the minority objections.
The larger of the two analyses, entitled ‘Quantitative Overview on Supplementary Pension Provisions’, was prepared for the Commission DG dealing with employment by Hewitt Associates. The 232-page report examines supplementary pension scheme rules in major firms from nine EU member states.
The second study, undertaken by researchers at the Higher Institute for Labour Studies at Leuven University, comprises an investigation of Eurobarometer data from a mobility survey that was carried out in 2005 for the EU 25. It looks into how long people spend in their jobs, when they expect to change jobs and on aspects such as career lengths across the EU.
IPE: Commission issues two surveys / EU – Portability Website
IPE: Solvency II – political not regulatory?
The European Commission has indicated it is unlikely to apply Solvency II-type rules to pension funds, despite continuing pressure from insurance companies and regulatory authorities. EC officials acknowledge pensions funds are already facing heightened capital and asset allocation requirement. New requirements could lead to the closure of defined benefit pension schemes.
Solvency II: political not regulatory? – 7 March 2008
Oe: Durchschnittsperformance für 2008 bei 2%
Die Veranlagungsergebnisse der österreichischen Pensionskassen liegen laut Fachverband der Pensionskassen im Durchschnitt bei nur zwei Prozent, was für viele Leistungsberechtigte eine Kürzung ihrer Bezüge bedeutet. Die Turbulenzen auf den Kapitalmärkten sind jedoch nur ein Teil der Ursachen für diese enttäuschenden Performancezahlen. Mercer hat die Ergebnisse analysiert und sieht zum Schutze der Anwartschaftsberechtigten vor allem in der Umstellung der technischen Rahmenbedingungen sowie in der Manager-Selektion einiger Pensionskassen Handlungsbedarf.
pressetext.austria
NZZ: "Gewichtige" Staatsfonds – weit kleiner als PKs
Im Westen geht mancherorts die Angst vor Staatsfonds um: Seit die Sovereign Wealth Funds aus Singapur, China oder dem arabischen Raum westlichen Banken mit Kapitalspritzen unter die Arme gegriffen haben, wird ihre Rolle kontrovers diskutiert. Im Vergleich mit anderen grossen Investoren haben Staatsfonds tatsächlich einiges Gewicht. Ihr Gesamtvolumen liegt gegenwärtig bei rund 3 Bio. $. Das ist mehr, als Hedge-Funds und Private-Equity-Funds zusammen verwalten – und diese Akteure haben in den letzten Jahren grossen Einfluss auf die internationalen Finanzmärkte genommen. Gegenüber westlichen Pensionskassen, die mehr als 20 Bio. $ kontrollieren, nimmt sich das Gewicht der Staatsfonds allerdings klein aus, schreibt die NZZ.
NZZglobal – Die digitalen Ausgaben der NZZ
UK: Pension funds face a shortfall of billions
Companies face having to add billions of pounds to their pensions liabilities under plans to be unveiled by the regulator to force them to use more realistic projections of how long workers will live after they retire.
The standard the Pensions Regulator is to propose next week is tougher than that used by 99.5 per cent of UK schemes and will increase stated liabilities for companies by 6 to 8 per cent, even for those already adopting the most prudent standard now in use. For roughly a third of all schemes, the increase in disclosed liabilities will be as much as 15 to 20 per cent and could force them to set aside more cash to fill shortfalls.
In general terms, the proposed standard for those retiring today at 65 assumes that men – the overwhelming majority of those in final salary schemes – will live to at least age 89, roughly two years longer than the presumption in more than half of current UK company schemes. Every additional year of life expectancy increases liabilities by 3 to 4 per cent.
FT.com / Companies / Financial services
US: State pension funds target climate change
A coalition of investors led by California’s two influential public pension funds will unveil an ambitious plan to prod companies and regulators to act more aggressively to stem the potential financial risks from climate change.
The unveiling will come at a gathering of more than 450 major investors, Wall Street executives and corporate chieftains at the third United Nations Investor Summit on Climate Risk in New York.
Business – State pension funds target climate change
NL: Dozens of schemes face recovery plan
The financial buffers of dozens of Dutch pension funds have dropped below the minimum level set by regulator De Nederlandsche Bank, Mercer has claimed. According to the pension consultancy, which monitors 94 of the approximately 700 schemes in the Netherlands, the shortfall has increased sharply during the past weeks, and is now affecting one in five pension funds.
Dozens of schemes face recovery plan – Mercer
FT: Brussels giving pension funds nightmares
Europe’s €1,870bn (£1,394bn, $2,738bn) occupational defined benefit pensions industry is protesting loudly about possible changes to capital adequacy requirements that could force a reduction in equity exposure in favour of bonds, or an increase in funding levels.
The apprehension being felt by pension fund managers concerns the possible application to their funds of forthcoming rules to deal with capital adequacy for the insurance industry (Solvency II). The debate is in the hands of the Committee of European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Supervisors , a body that advises the European Commission. Ceiops is assessing the different pension regimes, prior to reporting, probably before the end of March.
FT.com / Home UK / UK – Brussels giving pension funds nightmares
Li: Beitragsprimat in der staatlichen PK?
Das Gesetz über die staatliche Pensionsversicherung ist revisionsbedürftig. Daran besteht kein Zweifel. Die Geister scheiden sich allerdings an der Frage, wie eine solche Revision aussehen soll, schreibt das liechtensteiner Vaterland.
Liechtensteiner Vaterland –
Watson Wyatt: Wachstum der globalen Pensionsassets verlangsamte sich 2007
Das Volumen der weltweit in den elf grössten Pensionskassen-Märkten (P 11) verwalteten Pensionsfondsvermögen wuchs 2007 um 9 Prozent auf 25 Billionen US-Dollar, wie Watson Wyatt in seiner „Global Pension Assets Study“ bekannt gab. Damit schwächte sich der Zuwachs, der in den letzten fünf Jahren bei durchschnittlich zwölf Prozent pro Jahr lag, deutlich ab. Die P11 umfassen Australien, Kanada, Frankreich, Deutschland, Hong Kong, Irland, Japan, Niederlande, Schweiz, Großbritannien und die USA. 2007 machte der Anteil des Pensionsfondsvermögens am französischen BSP nur sieben Prozent aus, in der Schweiz war dieser Prozentsatz mit 145 Prozent am höchsten.