April 2022
20Apr

ESG, SRI, Impact Investing: What Are They, How to Get Started, and How Funds Have Performed

What is ESG, SRI, and impact investing, and how have ESG funds performed? ESG, SRI, and impact investing may seem like last decade's buzzwords, but they now have enough capital and data behind them for investors to pay attention to. ESG stands for environmental, social, and (corporate) governance. ESG investors look for companies that lead in those areas in addition to strong financial returns. Broadly speaking, ESG investors, socially responsible investors (SRI), and impact investors invest in companies that are both financial...

April 20, 2022
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19Apr

Chile’s lower house votes on dueling pension withdrawal bills

Chile’s lower house will debate and vote on two proposals for early withdrawal of pensions on Monday, one by legislators and another by President Gabriel Boric, who is seeking to juggle inflation and populist demands. Leftist legislators are proposing a 10% withdrawal but Boric and Finance Minister Mario Marcel have said it would worsen spiraling inflation. In March, Chile reported its highest monthly inflation rate – 1.9% – since 1993. According to the government, Boric’s plan represents a fifth of the...

April 19, 2022
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19Apr

China may see negative population growth in 2022, 12 years earlier than UN prediction: experts

Experts said that population aging may lead China to count more deaths than births in 2022, 12 years earlier than the UN predicted. They suggested boosting commercial insurance to support the elderly given the current inadequate old age welfare system. Chinese people aged over 65 have surpassed 14% of the total population in 2021, which is an important indicator and means the country has formally become an aged society, said Zheng Bingwen, director of the Center for International Social Security...

April 19, 2022
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19Apr

UK. PensionBee publishes gender pay gap figures for 2021

PensionBee, a leading online pension provider, has revealed a median hourly pay gap of just 1.6%, and a median bonus pay gap of 0% among its staff, as at 31 December 2021. The gap is in line with PensionBee’s target of 0%, with a variance of +/- 5% owing to the overall size of the employee base. This is the second year that PensionBee has voluntarily reported on its pay gap, as part of its commitment to wage equality, in...

April 19, 2022
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19Apr

World Bank cuts 2022 global growth outlook on Russia invasion

The World Bank cut its forecast for global economic expansion this year on Russia's invasion of Ukraine and is planning to mobilize a funding package bigger than the COVID-19 response for nations to deal with various resulting and ongoing crises. The institution lowered its estimate for global growth in 2022 to 3.2% from a January prediction of 4.1%, President David Malpass told reporters on a call on Monday. The decline was spurred by a cut in the outlook for Europe...

April 19, 2022
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18Apr

Argentina has too many pensioners, according to an IMF report

A recent report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has underlined the fact that Argentina has a larger proportion of citizens earning pensions when compared to other countries in the world. The IMF document also stressed many of those allowances were disproportionately high when compared to wages of active workers in OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries, which include the United States, Germany, Italy, Japan, and Spain. The report is dated March 25 and is attached to the understanding...

April 18, 2022
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18Apr

US. The age for required withdrawals from retirement accounts could go higher. Here’s who would benefit

Required minimum distributions, or RMDs, are amounts that must be withdrawn annually from qualified retirement savings accounts. If the RMD age is raised to 75 from 72, it would provide more time to move assets to a Roth individual retirement account, which comes with no RMDs during the owner’s lifetime. There are some instances when you may not want to convert money from a traditional 401(k) plan or IRA to a Roth. Some future retirees could end up getting...

April 18, 2022
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18Apr

Ireland. Pension bill will rise €7m a year by end of the decade

The government will be paying €7 billion a year more on pensions and healthcare for retired people by the end of the decade, the Department of Finance has warned, as it included Ireland’s ageing demographic on a list of risks to the economy released last week. John McCarthy, the department’s chief economist, said spending on older people would rise steadily over the coming years, while the cost of borrowing was also likely to rise and the economy would be vulnerable...

April 18, 2022
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18Apr

US. Labor Department announces new ERISA Advisory Council members

The Department of Labor on Friday appointed seven members to its ERISA Advisory Council. It also announced that Peter Wiedenbeck, the Joseph H. Zumbalen professor of the law of property at Washington University School of Law, will serve as chairman of the 15-member council in 2022. Megan Broderick, senior director for global retirement and financial well-being at PepsiCo., will serve as vice chairwoman, according to a Labor Department news release. The council's new appointees, who will each serve three-year terms, are: ...

April 18, 2022
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15Apr

Swedish regulator to screen funds for ‘green painting’

Sweden's financial regulator said it will start reviewing funds to enforce new sustainable regulations and to prevent "green painting." The Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority, or Finansinspektionen, said it will review "whether the information provided about the funds that are classified as most sustainable meets the strict requirements" of sustainable finance disclosure regulation rules implemented in March 2021. In a notice on its website Tuesday, FI said that as demand for green and sustainable funds increases rapidly, "this entails the risk of...

April 15, 2022
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