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The purpose of this paper is to study the sensitivity of provident fund investors to past performance and how market conditions, changes in risk and liquidity levels influence the net flows into provident funds by using a unique sample from Israel.

The study checks the impact of different levels of fund performance on provident fund flows using three alternative proxies for performance: raw return and the risk adjusted returns based on the Sharpe ratio and the Jensen’s α. The analysis relies on the time fixed effect and fund fixed effect regression models.

Results reveal that there exists an approximately concave flow–performance relationship and performance persistence among Israeli provident funds. Israeli provident fund investors are risk averse so they overreact to bad performance both in bull and bear markets. Moreover, liquidity is an important factor to influence the flow–performance curve. The investors’ strong negative response to poor performance and relative insensitivity to outperformance show that provident fund managers are not rewarded for their risk-shifting activities as in mutual funds.

The authors explore the behavior of investor flows in non-institutional retirement savings funds specifically outside of the USA, which is a topic not properly investigated in literature. Moreover, examining inflows and outflows separately gives the authors a richer understanding of investors in pension schemes. This study also enhances the understanding of the impact of fund liquidity on the flow–performance relationship for the retirement funds segment.

The Employee Provident Fund Organization (EPFO), established by the Government of India is one of the World's Largest Social Security Organizations. The purpose of EPFO is to ensure social security for Industrial workers and their dependents. EPFO maintains more than 15 crore accounts of its members. Traditionally EPFO had been functioning as a legacy organization, administered and managed by Indian bureaucracy. Operational processes were riddled with over emphasis on rules and regulations, but were weak on transparency, accountability, effectiveness and efficiency. The 120 EPFO offices established all over the country operated in silos. Consequently, the very purpose of social security and welfare of the industrial employees suffered, while all other stake holders enjoyed significant controlling power. Recent interventions at EPFO were focused on process reengineering and ICT enablement to make EPFO more customer-centric. The case documents the transformation of EPFO from a bureaucratic, opaque organization to a customer centric, stakeholder friendly, transparent and accountable organization through IT enabled operations.

Singapore does not have a welfare State. Instead it has full employment, rapid growth, affordable education and equality of opportunity. It also has the Housing Development Board and the Central Provident Fund. Public housing and compulsory savings are the subject of this paper. The purpose of the study is to investigate the nature of the symbiosis and the strategy.

The paper collects evidence on housing and superannuation to establish the precise link between them.

It is established that a great deal of Singaporeans' savings and wealth is locked up in their flats and houses. It shows that the relationship is risky in view of a rapidly ageing population and an increasing life‐expectancy in the post‐earning years.

Singapore is used as a case study to derive lessons for other countries wishing to combine good housing with adequate retirement provisions.

The paper seeks to show that housing and superannuation are both valuable elements in responsible public policy, but that, when combined, it is possible to have too much of a good thing.

The purpose of this paper is to propose joint stock company with variable capital (JSCVC), as financial sharing funds and banks necessitate that their capital and number of shareholders be instantaneously variable. Legal personality and accounts clearing of this type of corporations are different from conventional companies.

JSCVC is a corporation in which capital and shares of shareholders vary by new entrance or withdrawal of shareholders at any point of time.

Interest rate-based calculations were removed and Rastin Sharing Accounting was applied for JSCVS. Shareholders of JSCVC share the company’s nominal capital proportional to nominal values of their shares. Financial outcome of JSCVC is proportional to values of shares weighted by shares duration of participation.

To prevent spoiling of shareholders’ rights, legal procedure of issuing shares for JSCVC should be defined in compliance with domestic commerce laws in any country.

JSCVC can be used by majority of investment funds, credit unions, saving and loan associations, pension and provident funds, thrift saving plans as well as Islamic banks and financial sharing activities. In JSCVC, deposit at a bank is treated as a share of the company (bank).

JSCVC has fair profit distribution and accounts clearing arrangements.

Different variable capital companies have been defined in many countries’ laws, but essential modifications are presented in JSCVC definition to regulate financial sharing arrangements and bank’s performances.

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the use of a post hoc predictive segmentation procedure to find out the variables that are the most important predictors of investor's preference for specific financial investment products.

The study considers various demographic, socio‐economic and psychographic variables for the purpose of understanding the investor's preferences. Using a sample of individual investors (n=377), a classification and regression tree (CART) methodology was used to determine whether psychographic variables were better predictors than demographic and socio‐economic variables for understanding an individual investor's preference for the investment alternatives.

The results showed that psychographic variables emerged as the most important predictors in the case of investment products with greater degree of risk, and the demographic and socio‐economic variables emerged as the most important for the investment instruments with lesser degree of risk. However, when the sample was divided based on occupation profile (government and non‐government), for both the fixed returns based instruments and the non‐fixed instruments, psychographic variables emerged as the most important predictors.

These results show the need for financial service providers to consider the psychographic variables along with demographic and socio‐economic variables, so as to better understand and advise the financial consumers. This would enable the financial service institutions to target their audience more sharply, so as to develop appropriate marketing strategies and further build the investor's trust.

This paper is a first of its kind to empirically identify the most important variable that determines the financial consumer's preference for investment products in India, using CART technique. This study contributes to furthering the understanding of investor behavior.

This article discusses how Singapore does,which has gone beyond old age and certain traditional aspects, in terms of providing social security for its people. While there are no unemployment insurance benefits because of the economic philosophy of the paternalistic government which believes that maintaining a bouyant economy is the best “insurance”, there are many other unique schemes under the Central Provident Fund (CPF) which try to assure socio‐economic welfare. From housing, the CPF schemes have extended to medical, tertiary education and asset enhancement of CPF members. Inter‐generational provisions are also encouraged which strengthen the family as a very crucial social unit. The government hopes on one hand to give the people some self‐determination and self‐destiny of their choice in social security matters. On the other, it does have many means of ensuring that people make the “right” choices. With budget surpluses, the government has also been able to “top‐up” CPF members’ saving in a few ways. All in all, despite the economic inefficiency one may criticise of enforced saving, for the political economy in Singapore, the CPF mechanism appears to have served its purposes. However, some rethinking especially in terms of privatising more schemes may be wanted by the people in time.

While the literature contains a number of studies of ethical investment funds, relatively little is known about church investment processes and practices despite the significant role they have played in the development of the sector. This paper attempts to address this lacuna by studying the ethical investment programmes of two UK churches: the Methodist Church and the Church of England. The paper initially explores the relationship between the Judaeo‐Christian church and the development of the ethical investment movement. This history reveals an engagement both at the institutional and individual level that challenges the assumed sacred secular divide now commonplace within the literature and the more recent guardian‐advocate dichotomy. Second, the paper delineates the way in which the churches theologically conceptualise this engagement and describes how these values are proceduralised through the operation of the funds. The final section provides an immanent critique of church investments both at a performative and theological level. The aim of this concluding section is to engage with the churches in exploring the broader potential for the church in effecting social change.

The anti-apartheid movement represented a cornerstone for socially responsible investors in the 1970s and 1980s driven by the willingness to promote lasting social change. What happened next in terms of socially responsible investing (SRI) in the free South Africa? This chapter explores the local development of SRI in South Africa post-apartheid.

An in-depth literature review combined with a content analysis 73 SRI funds’ investment mandates were undertaken to investigate the local development of SRI in South Africa over the period 1992–2012.

Mechanisms of local divergence and global convergence have both shaped the phenomenon of SRI in South Africa. SRI in South Africa represents a melting-pot of societal values anchored in a local developmental and transformative political vision, some local and global Islamic religious values, and worldwide SRI and CSR homogenisation trends.

This chapter is the first attempt to outline the mechanisms of local divergence and global convergence that have moulded SRI in a democratic South Africa.

This paper aims to ascertain the behavioral issues in the usage of GPF (a DC scheme) by government employees in India. Using a unique data set of employees working in a central government office this paper attempts to ascertain whether the employees are utilizing the GPF in a way in which it was intended to be.

The paper utilizes the hypotheses testing approach in studying the behavior of participants.

The results suggest that employees in GPF accounts do not have sufficient balances to take care of their retirement needs and they are using these accounts more as long term saving accounts rather than retirement accounts. Besides, employees suffer from inertia in making contributions as well as withdrawals from their GPF accounts. Finally, the data demonstrate that there are gender differences in savings and women tend to have higher balances than their men counterparts.

Due to the small sample size the generality of the results is limited.

The results have the potential of influencing policy design in the post reform pension system.

Although the pensions literature has extensively covered the liabilities of the governments in defined benefit (DB) plans for their employees, not much literature is available on how government employees are utilizing the benefits which were intended for them in both DB and defined contribution (DC) schemes. The data set used in the study is unique and is the first attempt to understand government pension benefits in an empirical manner.

The vast global unit trust/mutual fund industry was worth more than $16 trillion by the end of June 2005. Over time, investors’ interests seem to have shifted from individual shares to share funds. The unit trust industry in South Africa is no exception. Over the 40‐year period from its inception in 1965 to 2005, the industry has grown from only one fund to 567 different funds, worth more than R345 billion. This study highlights some of the most important changes that have occurred in the South African unit trust industry over the last 40 years. These shifts are compared to changes that the USA mutual fund industry has experienced in the 60 years of its existence. An attempt is then made to answer the question whether South African investors are better off with these changes or not.