Latest Europe News
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Aviva strengthens Europe position
ING Group’s holding company in Russia and non-state pension fund business, which had assets under management of £30.4million at 31 December 2008, have been acquired by Aviva plc. The pension fund provides pensions to large multi-national corporate clients, and has 17,000 members. The holding company had £0.8million in AUM at 31 December 2008. The acquisition places ...
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BNY Mellon expands across Europe
BNY Mellon Asset Management has opened an office in Paris as part of its plans to branch out within Europe. The global asset management arm of The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation will be led by Anne-Laure Frischlander, managing director and head of BNY Mellon Asset Management’s French operations, with a five-strong sales team. The new venture will service current clients in ...
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iShares fixed income fund hits €2bn
iShares has announced that investor demand for its iShares € Corporate Bond fund has surpassed €2bn in assets under management (AUM). The fund, a fixed income fund which provides exposure to Euro denominated investment grade corporate bonds, aims to track the Markit iBoxx Euro Liquid Corporates index, which has exposure to industries and a market capitalisation of over ...
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Standard Life’s Europe results drop
Standard Life plc’s new business results for 2008 show a drop in worldwide life and pensions sales of six per cent to £15.6bn. Total net flows across the worldwide life and pensions operations were down from £2.8bn in 2007 to £2.4bn in 2008. However, in Europe, net flows were 13 per cent higher at £620million in 2008 than in 2007, at £548million. German ...
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iShares Europe enjoys record 2008 inflows
iShares Europe has reported a record year of net inflows into its European Exchange Traded Funds (ETF), securing €17.7bn in net new ETF assets at the end of 2008. AT the end of 2007, this figure stood at €5.8bn, and therefore iShares has seen a threefold increase in new money flowing into their ETFs. Globally, the business has had a record year, with net inflows of $89bn in ...
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European Research Strategy launched into market
A European Research Strategy for professional investors has been launched by Janus Capital International Limited, the international arm of Janus Capital Group Inc. The Strategy will be managed by the Janus research team, and will be overseen by director of research Jim Goff. The Strategy, which sis global, is an analyst-driven, team refined strategy with holdings and weightings in each ...
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European Commission closes Solvency II consultation
The European Commission’s (EC) consultation on its document on Solvency II rules for pension schemes has closed. There had been fears that the consultations could be cause for serious concerns in the UK, but consulting actuaries Punter Southall says that the scope of the consultation shows that the EC is taking a pragmatic and cautious approach. ';We welcome the fact that ...
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Europe to become main driver in RI market
Responsible Investment (RI) will become ‘mainstream’ by 2015 with 20 per cent of pension funds’ assets under management invested in this way, according to a report published jointly by Dutch asset manager Robeco and global consulting firm Booz & Company. The companies predict total revenue of approximately US$50bn by 2015. ';We expect the RI market to become ...
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Standard Life paves way to Southern Europe
Standard Life Investments (SLI) has reinforced its interest in expanding into Spain, Portugal and Italy by appointing Will Pawson as investment director of Southern Europe. Pawson will be based in Edinburgh and will report to head of European Business Development, Phil Barker. He will take responsibility for the wholesale and institutional marketing of SLI’s products in Spain, ...
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Hurdles still hamper Pan-European pensions development
Complex EU legislation, taxation issues and perceived lack of products are among the hurdles slowing down the development of Pan-European pensions arrangements, according to a recent study carried out by ...
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Dutch pension funds receive €4.9bn in dividends over 11 months
Between April 2007 and March 2008, Dutch pension funds are reported as having received €4.9bn in dividends on quoted shares, according to De Nederlandsche Bank. Pension fund holdings of these quoted shares averaged at €195bn in that period, which excluded quoted shares held through mutual funds. The Bank said that dividend income is used for two things, either as a major ...
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Netherlands streets ahead in use of Liability Driven Investment
Sixty-one per cent of Dutch pension funds are currently employing a Liability Driven Investment (LDI) strategy, an increase of 18 per cent on last year’s figures. Fiduciary manager SEI revealed the results of a Global Quick Poll of the global pension fund space, surveying executives overseeing pensions in the US, UK, Hong Kong, Canada and the Netherlands. There was also an ...
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Watson Wyatt releases Western Europe updates
Financial consultant Watson Wyatt has published the latest editions of its employee benefits and employment terms and conditions for Western Europe. The annual reports are in their 35th and 34th editions, and are references for executives with management responsibility for European or global operations. Covering 19 countries – Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, ...
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Borsa Italiana and London Stock Exchange leader in Europe for ETF trades
Aggregated figures show that July 2008 set a record in trading of Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) on Borsa Italiana and London Stock Exchange markets, with 140,452 trades amounting to a highest ever total of €8.8bn (£7.0bn). The average daily value traded was €383.2 million, an increase of 141 per cent year on year, and the total amount traded was an increase of 152 per ...
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European solvency hit by crashing markets
Funding levels have been affected by falling markets, according to Lehman Brothers’ latest Pension Fund Solvency Indicators released in its ...
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Citi launches pan-European service
Citi has announced a new service which will allow clients direct access to European markets on a direct basis and benefit from the consolidation of securities and cash accounts, through its Global Transaction Services business. The pan-European solution has been developed in anticipation of the changes that are expected to occur as a result of continued consolidation of the European ...
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AEGON releases €315million in securitisation transaction
AEGON has completed a €315million securitisation transaction to improve capital efficiency and optimise their capital structure as part of the group’s new strategy. The transaction adds the equivalent of around £250million of core capital, enhancing the financial flexibility of the group and improving the return on capital deployed in the UK. The move forms part of ...
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AEGON moves further into Eastern Europe
AEGON has further cemented its presence in Central and Eastern Europe with the acquisition of the Turkish life insurance and pension provider Ankara Emeklilik. The acquisition marks AEGON’s first step into the Turkish market, and is marketed as part of a broader strategy to build scale in emerging markets. The firm agreed to buy Ankara Emeklilik in February 2008, and AEGON also has ...
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AEGON expands on Eastern European presence
AEGON Hungary Pension Fund is set to merge with UNIQA and Public Service Pension Fund in an attempt to further strengthen AEGON’s presence in the ever-developing pensions market across Central and Eastern ...
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Europe ETFs overtake US market
The assets under management (AUM) in European Exchange Traded Funds (ETF) are predicted to exceed the AUM of American ETFs in the next few months. Since the beginning of 2006, the AUM of fixed income ETFs have grown from £4.4bn to £16.7bn at the end of May 2008, equating to a return of 73.5 per cent. AUM in US fixed income ETFs are currently at £21.8bn, and in Europe ...
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Pensions innovation rife in Eastern Europe
10.6.08 Creative thinking when it comes to pensions and benefit provision is rife in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) among employers keen to attract and retain an evermore demanding workforce. The latest editions of Watson Wyatt’s annual reports on employee benefits and employment terms and conditions for CEE reveal that companies are having to differentiate themselves by ...
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Seven Dials targets Northern Europe in latest asset allocations
The Seven Dials European Property Fund has targeted Scandinavia, the Netherlands and Germany as primary territories in the latest round of asset allocation. Fund manager Brett Robinson said that, as a result of the 2007 market fall out, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland all present ';outstanding'; opportunities for the fund, and the Netherlands and Germany also offer ...
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BNP Paribas strengthens European presence
BNP Paribas Securities Services (BNP Paribas) has entered the Hungarian and Polish markets with the settlement of its first client transactions in each country. Earlier this year branches were opened in Budapest and Warsaw, and BNP Paribas now offers broker-dealers, global custodians and investment banks a full local clearing, settlement and custody solution in these countries. BNP ...
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European Pensions ‘Personality of the Year’ Award – have your say
Nominations are now open for the European Pensions ‘Personality of the Year’ award which, nominated by our readers, aims to recognise those individuals that have truly made their mark in the European pensions space in recent ...
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Mirae breaks into European market
Mirae Asset Global Investments (Mirae Asset) has launched its business in Europe with the appointment of two senior executives to its London office. The Asian asset-management company has appointed Hendrik Cosijn von Ripperda as head of European distribution, and Andrew Lawley as head of UK distribution and global consultant ...
Europe Focus
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US nuclear missles in Europe remain poised for a war that will never come
The United States and Russia recently signed a new landmark nuclear non-proliferation treaty called START in March and the US in early May followed up its non-proliferation goals by making the unprecedented step of publicly declaring how many nuclear weapons it had – just over 5,113 in total, though many of them are in storage and would take time to be deployed.
That is a vast reduction compared to the total arsenal the country possessed at the height of the Cold War in 1967, the number at that time was 31,225, according to reports by European news media. Read more
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