News Archives - Page 302 of 954 - Pension Policy International

07JulJuly 7, 2023

World’s Largest Pension Fund Posts Quarterly Gain, Record Assets

Japan’s state pension fund, the world’s largest, posted its strongest quarter in more than two years as gains in global stock and bond markets during the three months through March boosted the value of its assets to a record. The Government Pension Investment Fund added 5.4% during the quarter, raising its total assets to 200.13 trillion yen ($1.39 trillion), the fund said in Tokyo Friday. Foreign equities were the top performers, gaining 8.2% as the US started to overcome a...

July 7, 2023

NewsJapan, Pension Management, Returns

07JulJuly 7, 2023

Canada. Expert panel: How portable benefits can support inclusivity among gig workers

The concept of employee benefits was established on a foundation built decades ago, when employees worked full time and long term with one employer. Those days are long gone. Temporary, part-time and gig work have become the norm, accounting for 60 per cent of job growth in advanced economies since the 1990s. Gig work is popular in sectors such as the arts, entertainment and recreation and it’s also more prevalent among immigrants than workers born in Canada. In 2016, 10.8 per...

July 7, 2023

NewsCanada, Informal Sector, Social Security

06JulJuly 6, 2023

US. Chicago’s pension crisis worsens with investment losses

It’s a good thing Mayor Brandon Johnson established his own “working group” to find long-term solutions to Chicago’s pension crisis. The mountain is getting steeper to climb. Chicago’s unfunded pension liability rose by 5.4% in 2022 — from $33.6 billion to $35.4 billion — after stock market losses suffered by the four city employee pension funds. The Firefighters Pension Fund hovers closest to bankruptcy, with assets to cover just 18.8% of liabilities. That’s followed by Municipal Employees (20.7%), Police (21.5%) and...

July 6, 2023

NewsInvestment, Pension Management, US

06JulJuly 6, 2023

Ghana: Govt Owes Pension Schemes Gh¢2.6 Billion… Finance Minister Reveals

The Minister of State at the Ministry of Finance, Dr Mohammed Amin Adam, has revealed that government's indebtedness to various pension schemes at the end of May 2023 is GH¢2.63 billion. The amount comprise of Tier 1 of the Controller and Accountant General's Department mechanised payroll, GH¢1.62 billion, Tier 1 of subverted institutions, GH¢188.59 million, Tier 2 of mechanised payroll, GH¢808.21 million and Tier 2 of subvented institutions GH¢6.1million. "Mr Speaker, the government paid GH¢2.67 billion to various pension schemes in...

July 6, 2023

NewsGhana, Public Pensions

06JulJuly 6, 2023

Canada. Reducing barriers to lifetime retirement income

Planning and saving for retirement is too hard for most Canadians. Seventy percent of Canadians are worried they aren’t saving enough for retirement, and 62% are concerned they will outlive their retirement savings. Unlike in our working years when the goal is to accumulate funds to maintain a quality standard of living in retirement, the later phases of life when those savings are steadily drawn down can expose overlooked risks and misconceptions about budgeting in retirement. Part of the challenge is that...

July 6, 2023

NewsAdequacy, Canada

06JulJuly 6, 2023

Kenya. Treasury plans to go after counties over pensions debt

The National Treasury and Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) have trained their guns on counties that have failed to remit statutory deductions to pension schemes. With the non-remittances hitting Sh90.69 billion in May, Treasury is now mulling deducting the outstanding arrears directly from the counties equitable share of revenue and the taxman engaged to collect the debt. Appearing before the Senate’s County Public Investments and Special Funds Committee, Treasury Cabinet Secretary Njuguna Ndung’u said that in consultation with the Retirement Benefits Authority,...

July 6, 2023

NewsRegulation, supervision

05JulJuly 5, 2023

It’s time to address the UK’s disability pensions gap

Building a healthy retirement savings pot can be a challenge for anyone as they advance through their working lives. Yet, without question, it poses many additional, arduous challenges for those with disabilities. To put this into perspective, one fifth (22%) of UK adults are currently living with a disability. And people within that community have, on average, a pension wealth that is but a fraction (36%) of the typical UK pension pot. In practice, that means Britons with disabilities nearing retirement...

July 5, 2023

NewsEquality, Pension design, UK

05JulJuly 5, 2023

Canada. DB pension plans improve in second quarter

The health of Canadian defined benefit pension plans continued to improve in the second quarter of 2023, according to consulting firm Mercer. The company said the median solvency ratio of defined benefit plans in its database ticked upward to 119% at the end of June, meaning more than half had a surplus of funds. That’s despite the U.S. debt ceiling scare and the lingering effects of the banking crises south of the border, Mercer said. Pension funds’ investment returns were mostly positive...

July 5, 2023

NewsCanada, Defined Benefit

05JulJuly 5, 2023

Japan. Panel Warns against Leaving Burdens on Shoulders of Future Generations

No matter how urgent and important some issues — such as the low birth rate — may be, the cost of responding to them must not be passed down to future generations. The government should not shirk discussions on the appropriate tax burden. The government’s Tax Commission has submitted to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida a report on proposals for medium- and long-term taxation systems. The panel submitted such a report for the first time in four years, since 2019. The tax...

July 5, 2023

NewsAging, Japan

05JulJuly 5, 2023

UK. Another nail in the coffin for private sector pension capitalism?

Without too much fanfare, the ONS dropped its latest Financial Survey of Pension Schemes data, covering the aftermath of LDI-mageddon. As well as putting data to things we already suspected (eg that private defined benefit schemes (DB) dumped corporate bonds to fund collateral calls), one unheralded development stuck out. Private sector defined benefit schemes have been shedding their equity holdings at a fairly rapid clip for reasons we’ve discussed many times. This trend continued in the fourth quarter of 2022, and...

July 5, 2023

NewsInvestment

July 2023