December 2022
15Dec

Swiss pension fund association lays out ESG reporting standards

The Swiss pension fund association ASIP has published reporting guidelines for Pensionskassen investments following ESG standards that will apply from 1 January. The ESG reporting guidelines include the disclosure of qualitative information on how pension funds deal with this topic, and quantitative information on individual investments. According to the guidelines, Pensionskassen would publilsh qualitative statements on the goals and principles of their sustainability strategies, underlining for example if they are anchored to investment rules, and the investment approaches for different asset...

December 15, 2022
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15Dec

Departing Hong Kong residents took $378 million from pensions in Q3

Residents leaving Hong Kong for good withdrew a total of HK$2.177 billion (S$378 million) from their pension accounts in the third quarter of 2022, down 16.4 per cent from a year earlier, government data showed on Thursday. A total of 8,600 claims to withdraw from the Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) were made in the July-September quarter, compared with the 9,300 claims taking out HK$2.604 billion during the same period in 2021. The figure also compared with 8,600 claims in the April-June...

December 15, 2022
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15Dec

Fintech Is Coming For Benefits: Best Practices For Employers

Fintech is increasingly touching every aspect of our lives, from retail to banking to blockchain, and now it’s coming for employee benefits. But how could fintech innovation change employer benefits? Employee benefits are essentially a payment or subsidy to employees—with some strings attached. They can apply this payment to specific areas, such as health, student loan debt, 401(k) plans, transportation and more. Benefits are among the biggest drivers of why employees choose companies—and stay. Yet benefits plans remain, in many instances,...

December 15, 2022
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14Dec

Climate change could cost pension funds billions, EU watchdog says

Pension funds across the European Union would lose billions of euros from their investments in polluting industries without action to mitigate the impact of climate change, the bloc's first stress test of its kind showed on Tuesday. The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) said its test covered 187 pension funds from 18 EU member states with more than 1.98 trillion euros ($2 trillion) of assets, or 65% of assets in defined benefit and defined contribution schemes. The funds were...

December 14, 2022
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14Dec

UK. BoE to stress test non-banks for first time after pensions turmoil

Investment funds and other non-bank financial institutions face their first 'stress test' next year to apply lessons from the near-meltdown in Britain's pension fund sector, the Bank of England (BoE) said on Tuesday. The BoE had to step in from September to buy 19.3 billion pounds ($23.75 billion) of government bonds to stabilise markets after turmoil caused by the fiscal plans of Liz Truss's short-lived government. Liability-driven investment (LDI) funds, used by pension funds to ensure their long-term payouts, struggled to...

December 14, 2022
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14Dec

US. What SECURE Act 2.0 passage would mean for retirement plans

In these uncertain economic times, America's workforce has not lost sight of the importance and value of employer-sponsored retirement savings plans. These popular programs — such as 401(k) plans — are an essential tool in attracting and retaining talent in a tight labor market, as well as bringing financial security to workers and retirees. So it's important that the governing rules provide savings opportunities for workers and clarity and efficiency for employer plan sponsors. These rules could be significantly improved...

December 14, 2022
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14Dec

Nine EU countries need pension reform

Nine EU countries have not explicitly committed to pension reforms in their recovery and resilience plans despite Commission recommendations on the matter from the 2019 European Semester, according to Commission documents and declarations made to EURACTIV. In 2019, during the European Semester, 17 EU countries received recommendations on the “long-term sustainability of public finances”, and 15 were urged to specifically reform their pension systems. Some of them were again asked to pursue reforms of the retirement system with the Next...

December 14, 2022
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14Dec

Germany. Scholz wants to limit early retirement to weather German labour crisis

While Germany's chancellor Olaf Scholz has called for policies to discourage people from taking early retirement, the FDP is looking to Sweden for inspiration, considering the economic benefits of a more flexible retirement policy and how it may help plug the country’s labour shortage. Scholz calls for cutbacks in early retirements Germany’s chancellor Olaf Scholz has made an appeal to people over the age of 60, calling on them to delay their retirement. The SPD politician said that pension-age people delaying...

December 14, 2022
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13Dec

UK. TPR calls for trustees to increase investment decision skills

Trustees should take advantage of available support and guidance to increase their skills in relation to investment decisions, The Pensions Regulator (TPR) executive director of policy, analysis and advice, David Fairs, has said. In a blog post, Fairs argued that defined contribution (DC) pension scheme trustees should take action to enable pension savers access to the investment opportunities that best support good outcomes. Fairs suggested that while DC trustees are at a fork in the road on their DC journey, “the...

December 13, 2022
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13Dec

Ghana. Exempt pension funds from Debt Exchange Programme – TUC insists

The Trade Union Congress (TUC), has reiterated its intention to advice itself if government fails to announce within a week the exemption of pension funds from the Debt Exchange programme. Speaking at a press conference on Monday, December 12, 2022, Dr Yaw Baah, Secretary General, Trade Union Congress, said government should publicly announce that all pension funds, including Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), were exempted from the Debt Exchange Programme. He said the programme will negatively affect pension funds...

December 13, 2022
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