September 2017

Chile. AFP: el tope imponible y la equidad

Un elemento que ha llamado la atención en el proyecto de Reforma Previsional del Gobierno es el tratamiento que la iniciativa da a la relación entre los topes imponibles y la comisión que los cotizantes pagan a su AFP. En efecto, el texto propone elevar el techo de cotización de las actuales UF75,7 (hoy algo más de $2 millones) hasta UF113 (en torno a $3 millones). Desde luego esta alza significa más ahorro y, por tanto, mejor jubilación. Sin embargo,...

UK. NEST withdraws investment from low carbon laggards

NEST, the workplace pension scheme set up by the UK government, will today urge investment managers to push for higher environmental and corporate governance standards as it announces further progress against the green investment strategy deployed across its £2bn portfolio. The National Employment Savings Trust (NEST), which provides 5.4 million UK workers with pensions under the government's auto-enrolment scheme, revealed it has withdrawn £27.2m of investments in the past year from companies it said were not making sufficient progress towards...

Ahorro para vejez en Beps estará de gira por Antioquia

Una maratón de vinculación y talleres de ahorro realizará Colpensiones desde este martes, 12 de septiembre, y hasta el sábado próximo en cinco municipios antioqueños. La idea es que más trabajadores que ganen menos de un salario mínimo tengan su cuenta individual para acumular reservas para la vejez en el programa de Beneficios Económicos Periódicos (Beps), en vista de que no pueden alcanzar los requisitos para una pensión de un salario mínimo. El programa comenzó en julio de 2015 y ya...

Fintech has transformed payments but not savings, says BlackRock’s chief executive

The financial technology boom has transformed the way over a billion people engage with financial services, particularly when it comes to making payments, but Larry Fink, chief executive of BlackRock, the world’s largest money manager, said that no company has yet managed to use technology successfully to get people investing for the long term. “I believe that if we give more people more confidence about savings, about how to save – like Warren Buffett – then that would transform many...

Korea’s Stubborn Leviathan

Sentencing the billionaire leader of South Korea's largest and most powerful company, Samsung Electronics Co., to five years in prison for bribery and embezzlement sent a strong signal the country might finally push through long-promised corporate reform. But if Korea really wants to clean up the overly cozy and sometimes corrupt relationship between the government and large family-owned business groups, known as chaebol, it will have to look inward to its own national pension fund. Since most workers must contribute...

US. Workers Wanted: Aging population presents double challenge in health care

Wisconsin’s growing worker shortage presents a particularly difficult challenge for the health care industry, especially in rural areas and at facilities that care for the elderly and disabled. As Wisconsin’s baby boomers retire in greater numbers over the coming decades and live longer than previous generations, there will be more consumers of health care while the working-age population that provides those services is projected to stay about the same. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, those age 65 and...

Nigeria. Digitization, fintech as panacea to financial inclusion

One of the compelling aspirations of the Federal Government and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in the last two years has been to ramp up the numbers for financial inclusion in the country. To this end, Nigeria’s apex bank, alongside other regulators in the financial services sector, including the National Pension Commission (PENCOM), has vigorously pursued the agenda of financial inclusion through various initiatives with a clear intent to bring millions of Nigerians, especially those in the informal...

Annuity Options in Public Pension Plans: The Curious Case of Social Security Leveling

By Robert L. Clark, Robert G. Hammond, Melinda S. Morrill, David Vanderweide Social Security Leveling is an annuity option that allows participants to receive a level income before and after age 62. The retiree receives a larger pension benefit prior to age 62, but then the pension benefit is lowered at age 62 when the individual is expected to claim Social Security benefits. This option is not uncommon in public pension plans, yet little is known about how this option...

Does Financial Education Impact Financial Literacy and Financial Behavior, and If so, When?

By Tim Kaiser (German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin); University of Kiel) and Lukas Menkhoff (German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin); Humboldt University of Berlin) In a meta-analysis of 126 impact evaluation studies, we find that financial education significantly impacts financial behavior and, to an even larger extent, financial literacy. These results also hold for the subsample of randomized experiments (RCTs). However, intervention impacts are highly heterogeneous: Financial education is less effective for lowincome clients as well as...

Financial Literacy and Inclusive Growth: Challenges and Opportunities

By Dinesha P. T. Sr. (University of Mysore) In India, financial literacy could now be only for the disadvantaged needy / underprivileged / poor but this is a continuous process where all citizens of the country should be periodically educated, which would become a certain tool to pave for the economic growth and the strength of the country. Recently our Prime Minister has announced series of ambitious social security schemes, relating to the pension and insurance sector and intended at...