Investment Officer Luxembourg

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.

Sweden has encouraged 3.8 million households to start investing through a tax-friendly savings plan. Industry voices are calling on Europe to follow the Swedish example to help channel the 1,400 billion euro in household savings into investments.

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.

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.