August 2024
30Aug

US. Texas is sued over anti-ESG law

 Texas was sued on Thursday by a nonprofit whose members support environmentally-friendly policies, and which seeks to block a state law targeting businesses that support reduced reliance on fossil fuels. The American Sustainable Business Council said the 2021 law known as Senate Bill 13 violates members' free speech rights by banning Texas from investing in or contracting with businesses that, in the state's view, "boycott" the oil and gas industry. Texas is the largest and among the most prominent Republican-led states...

August 30, 2024
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30Aug

Argentina police pepper spray pension protesters

People took to the streets of Buenos Aires after President Javier Milei announced he would block plans to raise pensions in line with Argentina's triple-digit inflation rates. Police used pepper spray on demonstrators and hit them with batons during violent clashes. The president announced his plans to veto the reforms tabled by the opposition-controlled Congress in a statement posted by his office on X, formerly Twitter. The statement claimed the bill's "only objective was to destroy the government's economic program".     Read more @bbc

August 30, 2024
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30Aug

Kenya launches plan to promote retirement benefits sector

Kenya on Thursday launched a strategic plan aimed at promoting an inclusive and sustainable retirement benefits sector. Chris Kiptoo, principal secretary in the National Treasury and Economic Planning, told journalists in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, that the five-year Retirement Benefits Authority Strategic Plan aims to grow the country's retirement savings from 1.7 trillion shillings (about 13.2 billion U.S. dollars) to 24.8 billion dollars by 2029. "The blueprint also details steps to expand pension coverage from the current 26 percent of...

August 30, 2024
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30Aug

Australian regulator plans stress test on private credit risks

Australia’s banking regulator plans to stress test the nation’s financial sector to shed more light on the impact of private credit capital flows on other market segments. “Private credit is a new and emerging risk that we are looking at,” said John Lonsdale, chair of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) at a media conference in Sydney on Aug. 28. “We want to work on more transparency in this area and we’ve signaled that already there is quite a lot...

August 30, 2024
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29Aug

US. Prudential to Complete Industry’s 1st Multiemployer Pension Risk Transfer

In what is thought to be an industry first, Sound Retirement Trust, a multiemployer pension plan based in Seattle, has selected the Prudential Insurance Co. of America to complete a pension risk transfer—the first PRT to involve a multiemployer plan. The $221 million transaction will provide pension benefits for approximately 8,700 retirees and beneficiaries. Sound Retirement Trust is a joint labor-management board of trustees that provides retirement benefits to grocery workers of contributing employers across Washington. Multiemployer pension plans are retirement programs...

August 29, 2024
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29Aug

UK. Britain should raise pension contributions to plug ‘gender gap’, consultant Mercer says

 The minimum amount that workers and employers in Britain put into pension pots should be raised to help plug a retirement cash gap between men and women, and boost investment in productive assets, pensions consultant Mercer said on Wednesday. Britain's new Labour government has announced a review of the pensions industry to give people more value and create bigger cash piles to invest in infrastructure and green technology to raise returns and economic growth. The government should consider increasing - in stages - the minimum...

August 29, 2024
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29Aug

South Korea’s Yoon pledges urgent reform of $860 billion public pension fund

 South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Thursday pledged urgent reform of the national pension fund, one of the world's largest with $860 billion of assets, to make it more equitable and to ensure income security for an ageing population. Yoon said there had been a loss of confidence in the pension system across generations and there was a need for fundamental and sustainable reform to restore the trust of those who needed it in retirement. "Now is the time to...

August 29, 2024
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29Aug

Gig economy is failing workers and needs urgent reform

In the recently released Chinese film Upstream, middle-aged lead Gao Zhilei, played by Xu Zheng, signs up as a food delivery driver to support his family after losing his white-collar job. Gao’s predicament is mirrored across the global working landscape where gig work has become a cost-effective way to fill temporary positions. The bulk of the work is in the food delivery, ride-hailing and home service sectors – a result of the emergence of app-driven, platform business models. But areas such as information...

August 29, 2024
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28Aug

UK. DC retirement expectations improve following state pension increase

The expected future living standard in retirement provided by defined contribution (DC) savings improved in Q2, although it is yet to return to the level reached before the 2023 update to the Retirement Living Standards, Aon's UK DC pension tracker has revealed. Aon's DC tracker rose “steeply” from 60 to 65.2 during the quarter, driven primarily by the April 2024 increase in the state pension, together with increases in post-retirement expected investment returns. According to the tracker, all members benefited from...

August 28, 2024
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28Aug

The geopolitical ripple effect of Asia’s ageing population

By 2050, according to the Asian Development Bank (ADB), one in four people in Asia will be aged over 60. This is a threefold increase compared to 2010. China, the economic powerhouse of the region, is projected to see a decrease of 220 million working-age individuals between 2011 and 2050. Japan’s population is expected to decline by 16 per cent by 2050, with the number of senior citizens living alone predicted to jump by 47 per cent. This demographic shift has far-reaching implications that demand the immediate...

August 28, 2024
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