Cicero Analysis
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A long hot summer ahead for the financial services industry
 As
we approach the parliamentary recess and with it, the onset
of a long, hot summer, some holiday rucksacks might be a little
too top heavy with DWP pensions and welfare reform consultations
documents. For many ministers and parliamentarians, though,
this year's traditional 'summer reading' by the pool should
be supplemented by a blank sheet of paper—to enable them
to collect their thoughts on how the Government will recapture
its 'touch'...
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FSA ICOB review: where next for general insurance regulation?
 This
month finally saw the Financial Services Authority announce
details of its review into its general insurance conduct of
business regime. While everyone will support the Regulator's
promise of a more principles-based approach, the devil will
remain somewhere in the detailed rule book...
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Legacy defined benefit scheme liabilities: analysis
 There
is no doubt that many companies saddled with closed defined
benefit pension schemes are ready to fall at the feet of anyone
prepared to take the things off their hands. And with the emergence
of new operators prepared to do just that, the arrival of a
whole new sector effecting bulk buy-outs of defined benefit
scheme liabilities seems certain...
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EU VAT Reform: some momentum but Member State positions remain
unclear
 The
European Commission is currently preparing a proposal for a
major shake-up in the rules governing the application of VAT
to financial services and insurance. Yet while the provisional
thinking on reform has generated considerable support from
the financial services and insurance industry in Europe, gaining
the support of Member State governments may prove difficult...
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Pensions White Paper: dealing with the other affordability
test
 Ever
since the Government launched the Pensions Commission, chaired
by Lord Turner, which proposed the most fundamental reforms
to our pensions system in decades, it has stressed the need
for broad consensus. Nowhere is this input needed more than
from the general public who will after all be expected to save
more and work longer in order to make these reforms sustainable...
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A woman's worth: how will women really benefit from the Pensions
White Paper?
 The
proposed reforms of the state pension are, on the face of it,
good news for women. They recognise that many of the assumptions
of the post-war Beveridge system, in which most men were expected
to work and pay contributions from the age of 16 and women
were expected to rely on their husbands for support, are old-fashioned
and increasingly irrelevant to the ways in which society has
since changed...
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Heavy weather: insuring against climate
change
 The
issue of climate change is now firmly entrenched in a prominent
position on the political and media agenda. In business, the
strategy in facing climate change can no longer be seen as
a PR 'add-on' to boost CSR or a reactive strategy in simply
conforming to new legislation. Though many dismissed David
Cameron's recent trip to the North Pole as a cynical PR stunt,
the reality is that considering climate change is now of crucial
political importance...
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