September 2023

US. Fox Sued by New York City Pension Funds Over Election Falsehoods

New York City’s pension funds sued the Fox Corporation and its board on Tuesday, accusing the company of neglecting its duty to shareholders by opening itself up to defamation lawsuits from the persistent broadcasting of falsehoods about the 2020 presidential election. The lawsuit, filed in the Delaware Court of Chancery, is the most significant shareholder action since Fox settled a blockbuster defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems in April for $787.5 million. The city’s five pension funds represent nearly...

How Africa’s pension funds are financing the continent’s infrastructure gap

African countries have huge infrastructure needs, and governments need private investment to help meet them, particularly considering increasing climate impacts and green development agendas. Local pension funds and other institutional investors are a significant but untapped source of finance. Two examples of pension fund consortiums, in Kenya and South Africa, offer promising models for engaging Africa’s institutional investors in closing the infrastructure financing gap and meet the continent’s growing infrastructure development needs. In just three years, these two consortiums have...

UK. TPR to ‘work more closely’ with pension administrators

The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has said it is planning to "work more closely" with third-party administrators (TPAs) and has updated on recent progress in a blog published today (13 September). The blog, written by TPR interim head of relationship supervision Cliodhna Judge, outlined how a recent pilot project on an ‘administrator relationships' function has led to better engagement with TPAs. The project, which has been running since early 2022, involved working with a voluntary administrator to "explore potential risk areas", and...

US Corporate Pension Funding Levels Dropped in August

US. corporate pension funding levels fell last month, matching a drop in global equities, according to analysts.The August report from LGIM America’s Pension Solutions Monitor estimated that the average U.S. corporate funding ratio decreased to 103.6% through August from 104.9% at the end of July.Global equities declined 2.8%, with the S&P 500 decreasing 1.6%. Portfolios in plans with a 50/50 allocation declined 2.5%, while liabilities declined 1.4%. The decrease in assets outpaced the decline in liabilities, leading to lower...

Minimum interest rate rise a ‘sustainable challenge’ for Swiss pension funds

The increase of the minimum interest rate – Mindestzinssatz – on pension savings to 1.25% recommend by the Swiss federal commission for occupational pensions, BVG-Kommission, is a challenge for pension funds, but sustainable, according to the commission’s president Christine Egerszegi-Obrist. “We held 1% [minimum interest rate] for years. A year ago we had negative interest rates and pension funds suffered considerably, [but] the interest rate landscape has changed, [therefore] we have carefully increased the interest rate,” she told IPE, explaining...

México. No es momento para hablar de otras reformas laborales: Coparmex

No es el momento para hablar de otras reformas laborales para duplicar el pago del aguinaldo y  reducir la jornada de trabajo de los empleados formales en México, consideró José Medina Mora Icaza, presidente de la Confederación Patronal de la República Mexicana (Coparmex). “No es momento de aumentar costos por el aumento de costos que ha habido en este año”, comentó el representante empresarial durante la Feria Iberoamericana de Innovación y Emprendimiento, organizada por el organismo. “Hasta que no logremos recuperar...

El enemigo que afecta a las jubilaciones uruguayas y las medidas para evitar sus efectos negativos

Una de las principales causas de las dificultades para aumentar el ahorro para las pensiones está en el funcionamiento del mercado laboral . Sin embargo, según la Federación Internacional de Administradoras de Fondos de Pensiones (FIAP), existen otros motivos que explican este problema, relacionados con las políticas públicas para enfrentar las “contingencias sociales”. La organización publicó una nota -a la que accedió El País- sobre las razones detrás de los bajos niveles de ahorro previsional en los programas contributivos de pensiones en América Latina y el Caribe. Según...

Países Iberoamericanos analizan las reformas laborales de la región en el II foro de Formalización Laboral

La informalidad laboral en los países iberoamericanos afecta a una de la cada dos personas trabajadoras, y supone que el 65% de los hogares se encuentren total o parcialmente en la informalidad. Estas y otras cuestiones se han abordado en el II foro de Formalización Laboral promovido por la OISS. El desafío de la informalidad laboral es un fenómeno complejo y de múltiples dimensiones, que afecta principalmente a trabajadores y trabajadoras con baja cualificación en sectores como la minería, agricultura,...

New Report Finds Public Pensions Play a Critical Role in Delivering Retirement Security for Older Americans While Reducing Wealth Inequality by Race and Gender

A new report finds that defined benefit pensions play a critical role in delivering adequate retirement income for older Americans while providing a key buffer against economic hardship for women, Blacks, Latinos, and those without a four-year college degree. The report also finds that the wealth value of lifetime pension income, particularly from public pensions, is distributed more equitably by race and gender than other private financial assets, thereby narrowing the wealth gap among older families. For example, public...

UK. Sunak tells PMQs he is ‘committed’ to pensions triple lock

Criticised over the state's pension policy, the PM says the government is committed to the triple lock He did not specify that this would extend beyond the next general election It follows Commons questions about maintaining the state pension triple lock beyond the next general election Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer asks the PM why Wandsworth escapee Daniel Khalife was not held in a category A prison The PM says such escapes are "extremely rare" and confirms an...