Investment Officer Global

Europe’s pensions supervisor is relaunching the failed Pan-European Personal Pension Product under a new label, EuroPension. Critics warn the project risks repeating past mistakes: too complex to compete with low-cost ETFs, too weak to rival national schemes, and too focused on capital markets at the expense of statutory pensions.

ING has brought all its investment expertise together in a newly established Global Investment Centre, effective 1 September. The unit is headed by Chris van Schuppen, who until this summer held senior roles at ABN Amro.

Pimco and Bluebay take different but equally sophisticated approaches to Euro bond investing, with both managers making active use of derivatives to steer portfolios, manage risk, and seize relative value opportunities. Their strategies highlight how synthetic instruments, often seen as opaque, can serve as powerful tools in fixed income investing.

What could hardly be considered a surprise anymore still turned into one. The annual revision of US job growth came in even bigger than expected. As anticipated, it triggered a flood of reactions—though often the wrong ones.

Since 8 August, Belgian taxpayers have been able to declare untaxed income and assets through a new procedure for fiscal regularisation

France’s government is adrift after Bayrou’s resignation, yet its bonds still draw buyers. Investors point to global tailwinds and deep liquidity, but warn that if sentiment turns, France could be hit harder than its peers.

In a world where climate risk is becoming an increasingly prominent factor, I argue that the psychological perception of this risk has a significant and measurable impact on asset prices.

It has been an eventful year so far for emerging market debt. Investors have enjoyed strong returns in US dollars, with the JPM GBI-EM Global Diversified index gaining 11.4 percent through July. India’s weighting in the benchmark has increased, but not all fund managers are equally enthusiastic about the country’s prospects.