September 2018

Swiss youth worry more about pensions than immigration: survey

A total of 53 percent of Swiss youth surveyed claimed they are worried about their pensions, compared with 41 percent last year, the barometer has found. Immigration, which preoccupied almost half those surveyed last year, only registered as a concern among 29 percent surveyed this year. Swiss youngsters are more optimistic when it comes to the job market. Only 34 percent felt their job would disappear due to the threat posed by digitization compared with almost three out of four young people...

UK. Union call for pension funds clean-up over links to Donald Trump’s migrant camps

UNISON has proposed a merger of pension pots and the creation of a new ethical investment unit. The call comes after The Sunday Post revealed £138 million of Scottish workers’ pension cash was being used to bankroll the US President’s immigration detention centres. The funds are managed by global finance firms with huge investments in GEO Group and CoreCivic, America’s largest private prison operators. Strathclyde Pension Fund, which manages pension funds for 230,000 public service workers, has £52m invested. Lothian Pension Fund, with...

México. Ahorro para el Retiro representa un 20% del PIB

Al cierre del primer semestre de 2018, el Sistema de Ahorro para el Retiro (SAR) administró cuatro billones 687 mil 763 millones de pesos, equivalente a un 20 por ciento del Producto Interno Bruto (PIB) nacional. En el sexto Informe de Gobierno de Enrique Peña Nieto se reveló que la composición de estos recursos se explica a que las administradoras de fondos para el retiro (Afore) manejaron directamente tres billones 323 mil 272 millones de pesos a través de 53...

República Dominicana. Carlos Peña califica al Gobierno como cobarde ante los abusos de ARS y AFP

El candidato presidencial del partido Generación de Servidores, Carlos Peña, definió al gobierno del presidente Danilo Medina como “cobarde” ante la falta de acción de las autoridades contra los abusos que las administradoras de riesgos de salud (ARS) y las administradoras de fondos de pensiones (AFP) cometen en perjuicio de los dominicanos. Para Peña representa una burla inconcebible del actual gobierno, proponer un aumento tanto en la edad de jubilación como en las contribuciones para solucionar la crisis social y...

El Salvador. A los padres que no paguen cuota alimenticia de sus hijos se le descontará de su ahorro de pensión

La comisión de la familia de la Asamblea Legislativa estudia una reforma legal para que a los padres deudores de cuota alimenticia de sus hijos se les haga el descuento respectivo de su fondo de pensión. "La iniciativa (es) para adicionar un inciso al artículo 260 del Código de Familia, con el propósito de establecer que de la cuenta individual de ahorro para pensiones, se descuente la cuota en concepto de alimentación de hijos cuando los padres incumplan con esta...

US. Retirement plans see rise in cyberattacks

While we may have hoped that employer-sponsored retirement plans would escape the types of cyberattacks plaguing financial service providers and dominating headlines, service providers to employee benefit plans have experienced a substantial increase in cyberattacks over the past few years. One plan record keeper noted the number of these attacks have more than doubled since 2016. Cybersecurity threats present new risks for fiduciaries of employer-sponsored retirement plans, as well as for advisers and other providers who serve them. However, these...

UK. Tax relief on pensions serves to enrich the wealthy. That must change

Pensions tax relief is a juicy morsel for the chancellor should he find a way to make it benefit the exchequer. Even a small slice of the £38bn spent each year subsidising pension saving could help thousands of schools and hundreds of hospitals that would otherwise be starved of cash. A £10bn saving is not outside the bounds of possibility, and that is without even shaking the system to its foundations. All Philip Hammond needs to do in his autumn...

French unions plan anti-Macron strike on 9 October

Two of France's major trade unions, the CGT and Force Ouvrière, have called for the strike, along with a students' union and a school students' union. A third labour grouping, Solidaires, has backed the call in principle but will take its official decision next week. In a statement, they condemned Macron's "ideological policies targeting the destruction of our social model, especially favouring an explosion of inequality and the destruction of collective rights". Decisions like the government's announcement that pensions, housing benefit and...

Why Nigerians Seek Protection Of Participants In Micro Pension Scheme

The scheme is targeted at the informal sector operators who constitutes over 50 million working adults and un-pensionable Nigerian population who by virtue of their professions, trades and endeavours do neither belong to the current CPS arrangement provided by the Pension Reform Act 2014 as amended nor have a veritable platform to save for their retirement. Nigeria has an adult population of 96.4 million (50.8% Male and 49.2% Female) with 63.9% residing in the rural areas. 56.2million adults (58.3% of...

Pension reform in the Czech Republic

Throughout the last 20 years, pension reform has been a crucial topic of public debate in the Czech Republic. Since the major overhaul of the pension systems in 1995, which transformed the previous socialist model to a new one that would fit the market economy, many reform steps have been taken. Speaking for the policy makers and key stakeholders of the Czech society, it is appropriate to say that we believe the pension reform is an ongoing process that...