March 2024
22Mar

Chief Risk Officers Say Cybersecurity Most Pressing Risk: Survey

In an inaugural EY/Institute of International Finance (IIF) global insurance risk management survey, cybersecurity was ranked as the highest concern for chief risk officers. CROs surveyed said the top five risk types or risk management types for the coming year were: 53% – Cybersecurity risk 35% – Insurance risk (e.g., underwriting risk, including lapses, catastrophic (CAT) and longevity risk) 32% – Business model change/transformation 26% – Credit risk (including country, sovereign and concentration risk) 24% – Tied between capital allocation, interest...

March 22, 2024
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21Mar

2023 US life statutory results: Individual annuity growth hits 21-year high

A resilient domestic economy, rising interest rates and ample supply of attractive products led to outsized expansion in individual annuities during a year of otherwise mixed growth in business volumes for the US life insurance industry. According to estimates from S&P Global Market Intelligence, individual annuity direct premiums and considerations surged by 21.8% in 2023. This data, aggregated from individual entity reports available as of March 11, marks a third straight year of double-digit growth, and the most substantial annual...

March 21, 2024
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21Mar

UK’s Hunt Says State Pension and Benefits Are ‘Under Review’

Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt indicated that reforms to the UK state pension and welfare benefits are being considered as the government scrambles to fund increases in defense spending and boost economic growth. Testifying to lawmakers in the House of Lords, Hunt said the triple lock — which guarantees that the state pension rises by the highest of inflation, average earnings or 2.5% — was “under review.” Continuation of the policy is subject to improving the government’s two goals of...

March 21, 2024
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21Mar

Global fertility rates to plunge in decades ahead, new report says

A new study projects that global fertility rates, which have been declining in all countries since 1950, will continue to plummet through the end of the century, resulting in a profound demographic shift. The fertility rate is the average number of children born to a woman in her lifetime. Globally, that number has gone from 4.84 in 1950 to 2.23 in 2021 and will continue to drop to 1.59 by 2100, according to the new analysis, which was based on the Global Burden...

March 21, 2024
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21Mar

Africa Is Aging. Will It Become A Real Population Bomb?

Africa is the most youthful continent, with 70% of sub-Saharan Africa under age 30. With high fertility rates and objections to birth control, the youth population will continue to grow. Investing in young people is important for the continent’s transformation, but Africa also needs to prepare for a growing older population that will present new issues in the decades ahead. By the end of this century, Africa will be home to almost 40% of the world’s population, including a 15-fold growth in older adults, from...

March 21, 2024
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20Mar

US. Pension Risk Transfers Trigger New ERISA Litigation

March is coming in like a lion with a new “genre” of ERISA litigation. The suits—two now targeting AT&T, the other Lockheed Martin—acknowledge that the process itself is perfectly legal, but question the prudence of the decision to “offload” that pension responsibility to parties—more specifically one party in particular—deemed less financially viable to fulfill those obligations. AT&T The plaintiffs in the first AT&T suit filed March 11 in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts (Piercy et al. v....

March 20, 2024
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20Mar

UK Spring Budget – Pensions proposals silent on sustainability

The UK government’s Spring Budget last week put an emphasis on investments in the UK but creates more risks for long-term savers by not sufficiently addressing sustainability risks. Pension funds and their investments have a direct influence on environmental, social, and economic outcomes. In order to secure the long-term financial interest of beneficiaries, pension funds have a responsibility to consider whether system-level sustainability risks will affect their ability to do this[1]. A key topic of the UK Spring Budget, also addressed in the...

March 20, 2024
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20Mar

World’s largest pension fund explores bitcoin as an investment

Japan's government pension fund on Tuesday said it is requesting information on "illiquidity assets" such as bitcoin, as part of research into potential new investments. The Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) of Japan, the world's largest pension fund by assets under management on several different rankings, said it is looking for "basic information" on illiquid assets other than those in which it already invests. GPIF said it currently puts funds in domestic and foreign bonds and stocks, real estate, infrastructure and private equity....

March 20, 2024
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20Mar

Interview with World Bank Country Manager Emanuel Salinas on the Pension System in Albania

1.  What is the World Bank's evaluation of the current pension program, which was approved in 2015? The 2015 pension reform of Albania was a step in the right direction towards establishing a clearer link between contributions and benefits, while also improving sustainability of the overall system. The change in the defined benefit formula in 2015 meant that individuals who paid more and more frequently into the system will receive higher pension benefits. The gradual increase of the retirement age...

March 20, 2024
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19Mar

US. AT&T Faces Second Lawsuit Over Pension Plan Risk Transfer

AT&T Inc. was sued for the second time in a week by retirees who say it wrongly shifted responsibility for funding the pensions of 96,000 workers to a “highly risky” insurance company owned by private equity. The latest proposed class action, filed March 15 in the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts, says AT&T offloaded more than $8 billion worth of pension benefits to subsidiaries of Athene Holding Ltd., which the retirees describe as “a private-equity controlled insurance company...

March 19, 2024
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