July 2022
07Jul

U.S. corporate pension plan funding continues to fall – reports

U.S. corporate defined benefit plan funding ratios continue to drop, primarily due to poor equity returns well offsetting declines in liability values, new reports show. A quarterly report from MetLife Investment Management shows the estimated average funding ratio of companies in Russell 3000 that sponsor defined benefit plans was 98.5% as of June 30, down from 102.5% as of March 31 Stephen Mullin, head of long duration and LDI strategies at MetLife, said in the report that each of the asset...

July 7, 2022
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07Jul

Ghana to ask IMF for debt refinancing due to pensions liabilities

Each of the countries going to IMF have unique circumstances that have led them to declare the need for help. Ghana is locked up in staggering pension liabilities, expensive labor contracts, huge flagship programs with large expenditures, and at the same time tax revenue that have fallen due to a weak economy and sluggish market and changes in government policies. For countries in the worst financial situation, the IMF process provides a legal framework to reorganize debts and negotiate an...

July 7, 2022
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07Jul

YuLife picks up $120M at an $800M valuation for gamified, wellness-focused life insurance

YuLife originally made a name for itself in its home market of the U.K. for its new approach to the provisioning of life insurance: yes, sell a policy that provides financial security to your people in the event of your death; but do so with a focus on improving the policyholder’s current life with wellness opportunities, and encourage use of that with gamification — a model that not only is aimed at benefitting the policyholders more, but increases engagement...

July 7, 2022
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06Jul

US. Biden to tout plan to protect millions of workers’ pensions

President Joe Biden will travel to Cleveland, Ohio, on Wednesday to announce a plan to prevent cuts to millions of workers' pensions. The launch of the program, created under the American Rescue Plan, comes as Biden's approval rating remains in the doldrums and consumer anxiety mounts over 40-year-high inflation. Under the final rule for the program, 2 to 3 million workers and retirees who faced pension cuts because of investment losses will get the benefits they were set to receive for...

July 6, 2022
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06Jul

Greece to allow pension increases from 2023, first since debt crisis- PM

Greece's Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis promised pension increases for the first time in more than a decade next year, saying Greece had definitively turned a page from the financial chaos which required three international bailouts. During its decade-long financial crisis that broke out in 2009, Greece was forced by its international lenders to slash pensions more than 10 times to reduce state spending and meet its fiscal targets. "Everyone must benefit from growth without threatening the fiscal balance or the country's...

July 6, 2022
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06Jul

Warning over pension change for South Africa

Retirement funds will have to invest in upskilling trustees to empower them to navigate the complex world of infrastructure investing opened up by the gazetting of the amendments to Regulation 28 of the Pensions Fund Act, says Andrew Davison, chair of the Investments Committee of the Actuarial Society of South Africa (ASSA). The new Regulation 28 investment limits allow retirement funds to invest up to 45% of assets in South African infrastructure projects, effective from the beginning of January 2023. Infrastructure...

July 6, 2022
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06Jul

UK. FCA staff strike ‘on pause’ pending further talks

Unite, the union representing rights of employees at the Financial Conduct Authority, has put a scheduled two-day strike “on pause”. The union did have a mandate to continue industrial action until the end of October, but now says it has “secured a route to union recognition” making strike action - which it described as a “last resort” - unnecessary. In a note on its website, the union said: “Following extensive consultation with colleagues and Unite HQ, pausing industrial action now seems...

July 6, 2022
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05Jul

UK. Advice sector must do more to attract younger clients

There is a worrying stereotype attached to the financial advice sector: it is interested only in clients who have accumulated a large amount of wealth — so it can easily acquire assets under management. This translates to a tendency to serve clients who are old, who have paid off their mortgage and who have a defined benefit (DB) pension. We have passed ‘peak DB’, with more people now saving through DC schemes The ideal clients, in other words, are the Babyboomer generation,...

July 5, 2022
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05Jul

German regulator adds more guidelines for occupational schemes’ risk assessment reports

The German financial supervisory authority, BaFin, has released further guidelines for occupational pension schemes to improve their own risk assessment reports, which that are so far not in line with the requirements set by the regulator. IORPs are not meeting the minimum requirements specified in the circular 09/2020 (VA), that provides information on the interpretation of regulations on own risk assessment (ERB) according to paragraph 234d of the Insurance Supervision Act (VAG). The ERB circular recommends occupational schemes to structure risk...

July 5, 2022
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05Jul

China Turns to Automation and Robotics to Solve Aging Problem

The impact of an aging population has taken a toll on China’s economy. Industrial automation and robotics could be the solution. We believe that China is at the beginning of a structural shift thanks to the country’s policy support, demographic trends and technological progress. Furthermore, the ongoing trend of domestic substitution will likely provide a fertile breeding ground for local champions to be born and thrive – and our portfolio companies Shenzhen Inovance Technology Co., Ltd Class A (“Inovance”) (0.64%...

July 5, 2022
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