All Fixed income articles – Page 10
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Opinion
How is monetary policy uncertainty affecting fixed income?
As interest rates remain low, the fixed income market is struggling to remain attractive to investors. Aon Hewitt's Tim Giles, Hymans Robertson's Carl Hitchman, Law Debenture's David Felder, M&G Investments' William Nicoll and the Pension Protection Fund's John St Hill look at the effects of economic policy on the asset class.
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Opinion
How to battle the key threats to your fixed income holdings
Pension schemes are a technology to defer wages until retirement age. Wage contributions are invested in a way to, at least, maintain purchasing power of earned income over time.
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Opinion
Rapidly shrinking yields leave investors needing more complex mandates
Six years ago, at the start of the global financial crisis, it was simple to find attractive yields in fixed income.
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Opinion
Gilts present pathetic value. What are the alternatives?
Henderson’s Kevin Adams looks at how to protect your scheme from capital loss and prosper in a rising rate environment, in the latest edition of Informed Comment.
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Opinion
Five key charts from the PPF's Purple Book
Flying in the face of almost everything else pensions-related this year, the latest annual edition of the Pension Protection Fund's Purple Book revealed few if any big shocks.
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News
Corporate schemes up alts but stem fixed income flows
UK corporate schemes ploughed 20 percentage points more of their assets into alternatives in the past three months than the previous quarter, while cutting inflows into fixed income, investment data have shown.
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Features
Hunting yield in an unpredictable fixed income market
A slump in government bond yields has caused some defined benefit schemes to delay derisking and look for greater returns in more volatile assets.
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Features
British Coal latest to unwind hedge funds, putting trust in property
The British Coal Staff Superannuation Scheme is unwinding its hedge fund holdings and increasing its property, the latest high-profile fund to drop an asset class beset by fee and transparency concerns.
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Opinion
How to avoid the illiquidity trap in your fixed income holdings
M&G’s Bernard Abrahamsen takes scheme investors past the traps and sinkholes of illiquid fixed income to find the right assets at the right price, in the latest Technical Comment.
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News
IBM adds cat bonds to mix as it diversifies return-seeking assets
IBM Pension Plan has invested £60m in catastrophe bonds as it decreases its exposure to higher-risk assets and focuses on investments that will provide a diversified source of return.
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Features
Westminster moves towards global equities to free up managers
The City of Westminster Superannuation Fund has decreased its UK equity holdings in favour of global stocks to give managers greater flexibility and boost performance.
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Opinion
Why mechanical derisking is leading to poor-value asset switches
Pension fund derisking has typically manifested itself in the gradual replacement of equities with fixed income investments.
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Features
Bromley mulls 10% illiquids allocation as cash flow worsens
The London Borough of Bromley Pension Fund is considering a 10 per cent allocation to illiquid assets to provide greater returns and inflation linkage, in expectation of turning cash-flow negative within seven years.
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Opinion
Building a multi-asset credit portfolio that delivers alpha
Diversification is a cornerstone of most investment strategies. However, nowhere is this more important than in corporate credit markets, where the asymmetry of returns is a key characteristic.
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NewsReturning volatility could threaten illiquid fixed income holdings, experts say
Pension scheme investors holding illiquid fixed income assets should beware the effects should increased volatility in global financial markets return, bond experts have urged.
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Features
Institutional investors warn pension funds not to become shadow banks
Chief investment officers at two historic institutions have raised concerns about pension funds stepping into the space left by banks constrained by tougher capital requirements, pointing to the potential risks and costs.
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Opinion
Why now is not the time to doubt emerging markets
In the latest Informed Comment, Muzinich’s Warren Hyland argues that despite geopolitical tensions and emerging market elections, company fundamentals and country demographics support an argument for EM debt.
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NewsSchemes drop gilts to diversify fixed income
UK pension funds were at the forefront of European institutional investors dumping government bonds for higher-yielding fixed income assets in the first three months of 2014, investment data have shown.
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OpinionFixed income: liquidity, multi-credit and performance
A panel of experts debate the potential and limitations of multi-asset credit, and how fixed income assets are performing, as well as their risks for pension schemes, in this four-part roundtable.
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Opinion
How is the role of fixed income changing?
Fixed income is no longer simply a matching or diversifying asset for pension schemes. Pan Trustees' Andrew Cheeseman, Towers Watson's Ed Britton, M&G's Richard Ryan, Aviva Investors' Dan James, GSAM's Jeremy Cave and PiRho's Nicola Ralston look at how its role has changed.