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Investor Profile

The Pension Trust: many schemes, one trust

“We are slightly unusual,” admits David Adkins, chief investment officer of The Pensions Trust (TPT), the £5.5-billion ($8.7-billion) pension fund founded after the end of World War II to provide retirement benefits for social workers. Talking from the trust’s Moorgate headquarters in London, Adkins explains how its umbrella structure has grown to provide pensions for […]
Sarah RundellSeptember 18, 2013
Investor Profile

BT scheme treads carefully in emerging markets

Sunil Krishnan, head of market strategy at $62-billion British Telecom Pension Scheme Management Limited (BTPS), the United Kingdom’s largest pension fund for employees of global telecoms operator BT Group, has sage advice for investors contemplating their exposure to emerging markets. Examining the pros and cons of the asset class, Krishnan counsels caution. Speaking at a […]
Sarah RundellSeptember 13, 2013
Asset Classes

Liquidity tightens, volatility rises

How should pension funds in the United Kingdom best prepare for the government unwinding quantitive easing (QE) and tightening monetary policy? The Bank of England isn’t showing any signs of ending QE just yet, its policy begun in 2009 and designed to stimulate the economy by creating new money to buy government bonds. But QE […]
Sarah RundellSeptember 11, 2013
Research

Dynamic allocation using minimum volatility

Active managers who are increasingly on the ropes as beta strategies encroach upon their alpha returns can take heart from the latest research from index provider MSCI. In the latest insight from Barra, Dynamic Allocation Strategies Using Minimum Volatility: Detecting Regime Shifts to Enhance Active & Passive Investing, Philippe Durand and John Regino argue that […]
Sarah RundellSeptember 6, 2013
Investor Profile

Full throttle, part time at BP fund

Sally Bridgeland, chief executive of BP Pension Trustees, the £18.5-billion ($28.7 billion) pension fund for employees of one the world’s biggest oil companies, only works part-time. She made the decision after a near-fatal skiing accident when she says her life passed before her. She is BP’s first group leader to do so and is evangelical […]
Sarah RundellAugust 30, 2013
Uncategorised posts

UK funds “profoundly” hurt by low interest rates

In his first major announcement as governor of the Bank of England, Canadian-born Mark Carney says ultra-low interest rates are here to stay. This couldn’t be worse news for pension funds, according to pension’s expert, Ros Altmann, but private-public collaboration on infrastructure could help ease the pain.   The prospect of another three years of […]
Sarah RundellAugust 23, 2013
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