April 2023

Higher living costs force Americans to cut back on retirement savings, survey says

Bigger chunks of our paychecks are going to pay the bills as we juggle higher rent or housing costs, larger monthly payments on cars, and ongoing high prices on food, clothing and airfares. Who wouldn't be tempted to dial back how much money you set aside from each paycheck toward retirement? Throw cash in a 401(k) plan? When you need to make a car payment of $700 a month or higher? Or your rent just went up by $250 a...

UN Pension Fund back on track after 2022 as low costs pay off

The United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund, UNJSPF, is clawing back 2022 losses with assets under management currently valued at $82 billion and the fund experiencing a positive return of 5 per cent so far this year. Robust returns between 2019 and 2021 had swelled the UNJSPF portfolio by 30 per cent to a record high in its 75-year history to over $91.5 billion by the end of 2021. Come 2022, and the ravages of high inflation and ensuing high...

Pension fund PGGM warns on dangers of social greenwashing

The principal director for responsible investments at PGGM Investments, the investment manager for the €277 billion ($306 billion) Dutch pension fund, has pointed to the continued challenges associated with measuring the social impact of investments, highlighting the reputational dangers of social greenwashing. “You encounter liberal definitions. There is some inflation in the terms that we want to be very cautious about. You don’t want to overstate [investors’] social contributions,” said Hans Op’t Veld, principal director for responsible investments at the...

Social protection and response to covid-19 in Latin America and the Caribbean: Innovations in registration and payment systems

By Nurth Palomo, Luis Vargas Faulbaum, Anna Carolina Machado, Camila Rolon and Fábio Veras Soares, Monica Rubio, Florencia Alejandre & Gerardo Escaroz The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has hit the foundations of the economy and provoked devastating social effects in all the countries in the world, being Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) one of the most affected regions. As of mid-March 2021, there were 37 million reported cases in the region and a staggering 1,275,567 deaths, equivalent to...

México. Traspaso de cuentas entre Afores seguirá suspendido hasta recuperar minusvalías: Consar

El Sistema del Ahorro para el Retiro (SAR) está en recuperación de las minusvalías registradas en el 2022 y es por ello que no se puede finiquitar la solicitud de traspaso de cuentas entre las administradoras de fondos para el retiro (Afores), de acuerdo con Iván Pliego Moreno, presidente de la Comisión Nacional del Sistema del Ahorro para el Retiro (Consar). “La gran responsabilidad que tiene la Consar es velar por el buen recaudo de los recursos de los trabajadores...

Fitch: sexto retiro de AFP golpearía las calificaciones de empresas chilenas

Fitch Ratings se unió al coro de voces que advierte sobre los riesgos de otra ronda de retiros de los fondos de pensiones en Chile al decir que podría conducir a rebajas en las calificaciones crediticias. Una comisión de la Cámara de Diputados en Chile comenzó a debatir la semana pasada diferentes versiones del proyecto de ley. Hay varias propuestas que permitirían retirar desde 1 millón de pesos (unos US$1.300) hasta el 100% de los ahorros de las cuentas de...

México. Ahorro automático beneficiaría la tasa de reemplazo en pensiones

La falta de ahorro para el retiro es un tema preocupante en México, y es que según datos de la Comisión Nacional del Sistema de Ahorro para el Retiro (Consar), solo el 39.2% de la población de 18 a 70 años tiene una cuenta de ahorro formal para el retiro. A esto se suma que las mujeres son las más afectadas, ya que solo el 30.7% cuenta con una cuenta de Afore, en comparación con el 48.8% de los...

Colombia. Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo respalda las reformas laboral y pensional que impulsan las políticas de empleo que adelanta el Gobierno del Cambio

Tras una reunión con el Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo, BID, para fortalecer los convenios de fortalecimiento a las políticas de empleo y de formación para el trabajo, Kelvin Suero, representante del BID, para Colombia, manifestó el respaldo de la entidad internacional, frente a las reformas laboral y pensional que avanzan en el Congreso de la República. “Desde el Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo estamos en la mejor disposición para acompañar sobre todo el debate y resaltar los elementos que nos han...

PPG Industries unloads $309 million in U.S. pension liabilities

PPG Industries Inc., Pittsburgh, purchased a group annuity contract in March to transfer $309 million in U.S. pension plan liabilities to insurance companies. The chemical company disclosed the transaction in its 10-Q filing with the SEC on April 21. The filing did not disclose the number of insurers or their names. It is at least the third pension risk transfer transaction completed by the company in the past seven years. In 2016, PPG Industries purchased two group annuity contracts to transfer $1.6...

U.K. Pensions Regulator calls for more safeguards for LDI

Pension fund trustees should put in place appropriate buffers to manage any leveraged liability-driven investment arrangements, the U.K. Pensions Regulator said Monday. In a new guidance, which was published following the September LDI crisis, the regulator said investors must also include an operational buffer specific to the LDI arrangement to manage day-to-day changes, in addition to the 250 basis points minimum. Setting the right buffer level is essential so the fund can operate in the normal way even where there are...