August 2022
30Aug

Albania. Only wage increases through more productivity can save public pension system, Word Bank says

By Tirana Times The only way to guarantee that Albanians can rely on a public pension in the future is to increase wages through higher productivity, the World Bank says in a recent report. Albania is going through a major demographic transition with high rates of out-migration and the rapid aging of the population, which is making its social insurance system a huge burden on the economy as the contributor/beneficiary ratio continues to deteriorate. In Albania, expenditures in relation to GDP for...

August 30, 2022
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30Aug

US. Q2 Market Losses Hard on Self-Directed 401k Balances

Self-directed 401k investors’ balances declined with the market in the second quarter of 2022, according to the latest edition of the Charles Schwab SDBA Indicators Report, an industry-leading benchmark on retirement plan participant investment activity within self-directed brokerage accounts (SDBAs). The report, released today, found the average account balance across all participant accounts finished at $283,485 for the second quarter ending June 30, an 18.58% decrease year-over-year and a 14.62% decrease from the first quarter of 2022. The Q2 SDBA Indicators...

August 30, 2022
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29Aug

Nigeria. PenCom to provide health insurance for micro pension contributors

The National Pension Commission (PenCom) says it is planning to provide incentives to contributors under the micro pension plan (MPP). The commission said incentives such as health insurance would increase participation in the scheme. Aisha Dahir-Umar, director-general of PenCom, said this at a recent workshop for journalists in Abuja. Dahir-Umar said the MPP was implemented to curb old-age poverty by assisting informal sector workers, including small-scale businesses, entertainers, professionals, petty traders, and others. Also you may interesting in Japan’s GPIF joins GRESB as infrastructure...

August 29, 2022
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29Aug

Germany debates raising retirement age to 70

Germany is reporting a record number of job vacancies in the first quarter of this year the number jumped to an unprecedented 1.74 million open positions. That number was the highest since reunification 30 years ago. At the same time, Germany also has a record shortage of young people. According to the Federal Statistics Office in July, only 10% of the population is aged between 15 and 24, compared to 20% over the age of 65. The country's birth rate is too low to compensate for...

August 29, 2022
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29Aug

Technology can turn Asia’s ageing population problem into a longevity dividend

The Covid-19 pandemic has prompted a fundamental shift in attitudes towards technology in the workplace. Concerns that computers would render workers obsolete are giving way to the appreciation that technology could free humanity from mundane tasks and enable more flexible ways of working and interaction. Crucially, digital technology will help keep older workers in employment and bring retirees back by permitting more flexible work arrangements and reducing the physical or cognitive demands of certain jobs. If mindsets can change, these...

August 29, 2022
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29Aug

UK. Andy Bell: Common sense failure risks good work on pension transfers

By  Andy Bell In December last year I wrote in Money Marketing that new regulations designed to protect savers from pension scams would only work properly if common sense was applied by schemes administering transfers. Sadly, in certain parts of the industry, it appears ‘common sense’ is an alien concept, and it looks increasingly likely the rules will need to be revisited to ensure legitimate transfers aren’t slowed to a crawl or blocked altogether. Pension transfer scams As a reminder, this saga started...

August 29, 2022
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26Aug

GOP Fury Over ESG Triggers Backlash With US Pensions at Risk

Investment professionals are warning that a Republican campaign seeking to wipe ESG off the financial map puts at risk the savings of ordinary Americans caught in the political crossfire. Read also United States: ESG And Political Climate Changes Environmental, social and governance investing is now under attack in the world's largest economy. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis this week banned state pension funds from screening for ESG risks. Texas is seeking to isolate financial firms it says are hostile toward the fossil-fuel...

August 26, 2022
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26Aug

Climate Risk and Indian Pension Funds

Since Reserve Bank of India (RBI) published its discussion paper on climate risk for stakeholder consultation it is somewhat puzzling to notice that other financial regulators have not taken a similar approach to gauge the extent of climate risk in their respective domains. Climate risk, being a systemic risk, will impact the entire financial sector. Let us take the case of pension funds. Globally, since the signing of UN Climate Change Conference (COP26), major pension funds such as the Ontario...

August 26, 2022
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26Aug

US. Texas’s threat to boot BlackRock from pension funds forces corporations into can’t-win battle over ESG investing

Hi from Geneva, Switzerland. Peter Vanham here, filling in for Alan. I’m Fortune’s newly minted executive editor, responsible for the Connect learning platform. I’ll also be joining Alan in writing on corporate America’s turn to stakeholder capitalism and sustainable business practices. Speaking of which, in the latest backlash to ESG, Texas state comptroller Glenn Hegar yesterday listed BlackRock and nine other asset managers using ESG investing as “financial companies that boycott energy companies.” He warned BlackRock and Co. would be “subject...

August 26, 2022
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26Aug

Nigeria. Pencom to push pension remittances, attract informal sector operators

The National Pension Commission is taking urgent steps to enforce remittances of pension deductions by employers and to widen its public awareness of the Micro Pension Plan (MPP) in other to encourage participation among operators of the informal sector, in the country The Head of Micro Pension Department, Mr. Dauda Ahmed, said in Abuja, yesterday, that MPP was a veritable tool against poverty at old age, which he observed has been the worst challenge of people employed in the informal...

August 26, 2022
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