August 2025
22Aug

ESG round-up: UK pension fund to poll members on defence investment

Avon Pension Fund is set to poll its beneficiaries on their stance on investment in the defence sector, to inform a decision later this year by its Pension Committee on how to approach the sector. Under UK fiduciary law, a pension fund may take non-financial considerations into account in its investment decisions if, among other things, they have good reason to believe that a majority of scheme members would share their views. The survey will aim to gather views...

August 22, 2025
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22Aug

US. Texas state pension funds face benchmark dilemma over banned investments

The Employee Retirement System of Texas (ERS) is set to switch to a custom benchmark from Bloomberg allowing it to exclude the long list of companies it is banned from investing in from performance comparisons. Texan statewide pension funds are currently prohibited from investing in companies allegedly boycotting fossil fuel or Israeli investments, or that allegedly have operations in Iran. Lists of such firms are determined by the state’s comptroller. The comptroller also directed funds to divest from China late last year. Separate...

August 22, 2025
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22Aug

Saudi Arabia to launch voluntary pension and savings scheme for foreign workers

Saudi Arabia is preparing to announce a new voluntary pension and savings program that will be open to both Saudi and foreign workers, according to the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) latest Article IV consultation report, cited by Al-Eqtisadiah newspaper. The program is designed to boost household savings and is expected to help curb the outflow of workers’ remittances abroad. The Public Pension and Savings Program is anticipated to be unveiled soon. Foreign remittances from Saudi Arabia rose 14 percent last year to...

August 22, 2025
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21Aug

Pensioners on the frontline of Argentina’s fiery politics

For sure, these veteran "militants" are vocal. Sometimes they are even feisty. But they are also gray-haired, wrinkled and at times struggle to keep their balance. "For God's sake!" 87-year-old Ricardo Migliavacca shouted during a recent police advance that nearly toppled him. "How disgraceful!" He recovered only with the help of his sturdy blue Zimmer frame. Migliavacca is just one of hundreds of pensioners who have taken part in weekly protests against Argentina's right-wing President Javier Milei. They want a pension increase to soften...

August 21, 2025
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21Aug

UK. Gender gap means retired women ‘have four months a year with no pension’

Retired women in the UK in effect go four months of the year without a pension when their income is compared with that of men, union leaders have warned. The TUC said the income gap between men and women in retirement was 36.5%, equivalent to a shortfall of £7,600 a year on average. As a percentage this was more than double the gender pay gap, which measures the difference in average earnings from work; it stands at 13.1%. The union organisation said this meant...

August 21, 2025
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21Aug

Treasury Outlines Plan to Pay Retirement Benefits to Former Kenya Railways Staff

National Treasury Cabinet Secretary, John Mbadi, has revealed how the government plans to pay the retirement benefits owed to former Kenya Railways staff. Appearing before the Labour and Social Welfare Committee on Wednesday, August 20, Mbadi revealed that the government had a plan set in place to pay the money owed to the Kenya Railways Staff Retirement Benefit Scheme (KRSRBS). The CS claimed that the delayed payments had been caused by the fact that the scheme did not have any monetary...

August 21, 2025
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21Aug

US. How 401(K)s Can Perpetuate Wealth Inequality

The 401(k) plan was never meant to become the backbone of U.S. retirement security. When it emerged in the late 1970s and early 1980s, it was pitched as a tax-deferred perk for executives and other white-collar workers.1 But four decades on, 401(k)s dominate private-sector retirement savings offerings, covering two-thirds of workers with access to a plan and holding $9 trillion in assets. Yet their benefits still tilt upward: Higher-income employees, who naturally rely less on their complete paycheck to get...

August 21, 2025
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20Aug

US Pensions Will Ride Stock Rally to Reach 12% Gains, S&P Says

US public retirement funds will outperform typical investment expectations as they profit from strong stock returns, S&P Global Ratings said in a recent report. Analysts expect pensions to generate returns of 11% to 12% for the fiscal year that ended in June, driven by steep jumps in stock prices. These gains would be in spite of a dip that occurred in April, when the S&P 500 shed more than $5.4 trillion in two trading sessions after investors reacted to President...

August 20, 2025
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20Aug

UK. Over £80m in compensation secured for pension scam victims

Over 2,000 pension scam victims have received compensation to help them rebuild their lives, with a total of £81.5m in compensation paid to 58 pension schemes whose members were defrauded by scammers, The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has confirmed. The update from TPR, the Fraud Compensation Fund (FCF), The Pensions Ombudsman (TPO) and Dalriada Trustees confirmed that more payments are set to follow for other victims as a result of the joint-agency initiative. Work to secure compensation for savers began after a High Court...

August 20, 2025
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20Aug

Financial inclusion, mobile money and the rural, informal economy

FINTECH has revolutionalised banking activities globally over the past one decade so tremendously in both scale and scope. In developing countries, it has brought banking within the reach of many hitherto disadvantaged cohorts of the populace, thus drawing them into the ever-widening circle of those having access to banking operations. It has also contributed significantly to wealth creation within the underprivileged populace, providing regular incomes and access to credit in many instances. Africa has opened up and started to...

August 20, 2025
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