February 2023
16Feb

Denmark’s AkademikerPension takes on the banks financing fossil fuels

Denmark’s AkademikerPension, the member-owned pension fund for 150,000 academics, has just notched up another important milestone in its ambitious sustainability strategy. Pressure from the fund’s CIO and chief financial officer Anders Schelde on Denmark’s Dankse Bank contributed to the lender announcing plans to end new financing to oil and gas E&P companies that don’t have a credible transition plan in line with the Paris Agreement. Last year, Schelde stood up and challenged Dankse executives at the bank’s AGM, the only...

February 16, 2023
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16Feb

Third of UK savers unaware of their retirement options

The firm's Future of Global Retirement report - which surveyed 8,000 savers across the UK, Australia, South Africa and the US - found the UK ranked lowest when it came to understanding of savers' options at retirement. The report - published today (16 February) - discovered with the increasing cost of living, a third (34%) of respondents are concerned they would be unable to afford their day-to-day living costs in retirement. The research revealed a gender discrepancy as 38% of...

February 16, 2023
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16Feb

Flexibility And Earning Potential, Two Lures Of The Gig Economy

We’ve been talking about the gig economy in the United States, which, by the end of 2022, had 70 million gig workers—the most in the world—and how this mode of working might tie in with inclusive capitalism. The choice to work freelance comes with pluses, as we found, and some minuses too. Most of the deficits take the form of the loss of financial security nets. Despite some isolated efforts on the part of U.S. lawmakers to give gig...

February 16, 2023
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15Feb

US. SEC Proposes Rule Making It Harder For Crypto Firms To Work With Hedge, Pension Funds

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is set to propose rule changes that would make it harder for crypto firms to be designated as "qualified custodians," Bloomberg reported. The new rules would allow crypto firms to hold client assets for money managers. While the proposed changes have not yet been released, they could make it more difficult for institutional funds that have invested in cryptocurrency to comply with regulatory requirements for holding client assets. These funds may need to move their...

February 15, 2023
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15Feb

Total U.K. pension fund surplus, funding ratio decrease slightly in January

The aggregate surplus of U.K. defined benefit funds covered by the PPF 7800 index decreased slightly in January, by 0.6% to £374.4 billion ($463.4 billion). The surplus more than doubled for the year ended Jan. 31, from £146.4 billion, according to a Tuesday update by the Pension Protection Fund, London. The PPF is the lifeboat fund for pension funds of U.K. insolvent companies. The aggregate funding ratio was 134.8% as of Jan. 31, compared with 136.5% as of Dec. 31. The...

February 15, 2023
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15Feb

Around the World, New Solutions to Fight Poverty in Aging

In Mexico, they’re teaching Indigenous artisans how to sell their textiles and crafts online. In Ethiopia and Colombia, they’re experimenting with new ways to provide health care services to residents in rural communities. In Bangladesh and Ecuador, they’re using targeted cash transfers to help older widows and others avoid poverty when they are unable to earn income. Around the globe, governments and other policymakers are exploring solutions to prevent older adults from living in poverty or otherwise being shut out...

February 15, 2023
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15Feb

75-year-old Iraqi woman donates her pension for Turkey quake victims

In a noble gesture, an elderly Iraqi woman has donated her pension to the earthquake victims in Turkey. The 75-year-old Khorshid Hussein Mohammed lives in Barda Qaraman on the outskirts of Sulaymaniyah, set aside her differences and illness, and made the decision. Khorshid told the media that she was born in 1948 in the village of Bargurdi, Mawat. She said she had to leave her village in 1989 due to oppression by the Baath regime and recalled her time she lived in...

February 15, 2023
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14Feb

US. Pension funds are sticking with bonds for the most part

Last year was rough for U.S. pension fund bond portfolios. With the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond index down 14.6% after a year of high volatility, investors had to look to other parts of their portfolios to bolster returns. For the defined benefit plans among the 200 largest plan sponsors in Pensions & Investments' survey, the evidence of that volatility is obvious in the data. A significant portion of the plans in the survey reported smaller bond portfolios as of Sept....

February 14, 2023
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14Feb

Ghana. DDEP: We will abandon hospitals if you touch our pension funds – GMA warns

The Ghana Medical Association (GMA) has threatened it will abandon the hospitals if the government touches their pension funds for the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP).   Speaking on Starr Today with Joshua Kodjo Mensah, the General Secretary of GMA, Dr. Titus Beyuo said that the government dares not touch their independent pension funds adding any move by the government on their fund will be a complete betrayal of trust and action in bad faith.   “If you touch people’s pensions they are...

February 14, 2023
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14Feb

UK. Mary Starks Leads Review of Pensions Regulator

The Department for Work and Pensions has announced the appointment of Mary Starks to lead a review of The Pensions Regulator (TPR). This is in line with the expectation that public bodies are reviewed each Parliament. The Minister for Pensions has asked Starks to aim to deliver the report in May 2023. Stark’s previous experience includes serving as executive member of the Board and Director of Competition and Chief Economist at the Financial Conduct Authority. She has also served as Executive...

February 14, 2023
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