April 2017

España. Pensiones: una reforma estructural de fondo inaplazable

Si queremos que el Sistema de Pensiones siga viable, que lo es en el corto plazo, pero no en el medio y largo plazo con las tendencias actuales, tenemos que consensuar mediante un gran pacto político, sin demagogias y populismos, qué Estado de Bienestar queremos. Pero en el contexto de las restricciones que imponen los equilibrios financieros en el corto y largo plazo, así como las tendencias demográficas. No se pueden estar haciendo reformas cada dos por tres, aunque en...

Workers at BMW to stage series of strikes amid row over pensions

Workers at car giant BMW are to stage a series of eight 24-hour strikes from later this month in a dispute over pensions. Members of Unite will walk out at different locations from April 19 until May 24, following a huge vote in favour of industrial action. Unite said the strikes will “significantly disrupt” production of cars including the Mini. The union said closure of the BMW occupational pension scheme by the end of May could see some workers lose up to...

Some granularity on the Mexican pension industry

BlackRock has published a research report about pension funds in Mexico, a report produced as part of its broader research project looking into the state of the pension fund industry around the globe. It shows that the cause of alternatrive investments as a group is the cause of diversification for institutional investrors whose long-tailed liabilities impose upon them long temporal horizons. The Mexico report explains that the country’s Administradoras de Fondos Para el Retiro (AFOREs) operate in a regulatory environment...

Greek Pensions Hot Potato Puts Tsipras in Bailout Tight Spot

Athens resident Spiros is among the reasons Greece is having a hard time reaching a bailout accord with creditors. The 82-year-old is one of about 2.7 million pensioners likely to face a cut in monthly payments for the 12th time since the debt crisis in 2010, as part of the measures required for the disbursement of the next tranche of emergency loans. The government of Alexis Tsipras wants any new cuts in pensions to be phased in gradually and not...

Chile. “No + AFP” responde a ministro Valdés: Gobierno no sabe qué hacer con pensiones

El vocero del movimiento "No + AFP", Luis Mesina, afirmó en El Diario de Cooperativa que el Gobierno no tiene claridad de qué hacer con las pensiones, luego que el ministro de Hacienda, Rodrigo Valdés, pusiera en duda el proyecto de reforma del sistema previsional. El secretario de Estado dijo en Cooperativa que "no tiene sentido" la iniciativa si no existe un acuerdo en la Nueva Mayoría, ante lo que Mesina dijo que "no me sorprenden en absoluto las declaraciones...

España. El gasto en pensiones se dispara en 4.200 millones y supone ya el 40% del Presupuesto

El agujero de la Seguridad Social sigue engordando. Y tiene su reflejo en los Presupuestos Generales del Estado. Más del 55% del dinero que saldrá de las arcas públicas este año irá destinado al gasto social. La mayor parte lo absorben las pensiones: 139.647 millones. Una partida que supone un aumento de casi 4.200 millones de euros en comparación con 2016 (un 3,1% más). Y que representa más del 40,7% del total del gasto del presupuesto consolidado. La cifra es...

US. Debt Market Lures Billions as Verizon, GM Pursue Pension Trade

Employers saddled with swelling pension obligations and higher government fees on those liabilities are finding some relief in the corporate debt market. Delta Air Lines, Verizon Communications Inc., and FedEx Corp. have issued more than $14 billion in bonds this year in which some proceeds were flagged for bolstering their retirement programs, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Last year, General Motors Co. did the same, and International Paper Co. had a debt sale as part of a plan to...

The reason underfunded pensions are a disaster waiting to happen

While most corporate employers shifted from pension plans to 401(k)s after the latter’s creation in the early 1980s, governments still offer pensions to many employees. And those pensions have left retirees and taxpayers in a bind that has fueled political battles while continuing to en rich investment consultants and managers: Too-optimistic estimates of market return, which determine how much governments must pay to fund the balance, have left many plans massively underfunded even as the advisers who managed them received...

Population ageing and decline ‘key focus’ as UN Commission opens 50th annual session

The United Nations advisory body on issues related to population and development today kicked off its annual session, with a focus on changing population age structures and sustainable development. “Population ageing and population decline have now become key issues for a growing number of Member States,” Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs Wu Hongbo told the opening segment of the Commission on Population and Development’s fiftieth annual session, which will run at UN Headquarters through 7 April. He also noted that...

En Bolivia, fondos del Sistema de Pensiones llegan a USD14.172 millones y superan a las RIN

El viceministro de Pensiones y Servicios Financieros, Mario Guillén, realizó un balance de la Ley 065 del Sistema Integral de Pensiones (SIP) a seis años de vigencia de la norma.La autoridad destacó el aporte del Fondo Solidario, que permitió mejorar la renta de los adultos mayores con bajos ingresos y, de esta forma, cubrir sus necesidades. A seis años de vigencia de la Ley del Sistema Integral de Pensiones (SIP) ¿cuál es su balance sobre esta norma? Antes de la aprobación...