January 2021
05Jan

UK. FTSE 350 DB pension deficit almost doubles in 2020 amid Covid and Brexit

The accounting deficit of FTSE 350 companies’ defined benefit (DB) pension schemes nearly doubled last year, increasing from £40bn at the end of 2019 to £70bn at the end of 2020, according to Mercer. The provider's Pension Risk Survey data showed that liability values had risen by £99bn over the past year, increasing from £815bn at 31 December 2019 to £914bn at the end of December 2020, which it attributed to falls in corporate bond yields. This was partially offset as...

January 5, 2021
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05Jan

Bulgaria. State Will Further Support Pensioners and Families with Children

In April, Bulgarian retirees with a pension ranging from BGN 300.01 up to BGN 369, which is392 000 people, will receive additional BGN 120 for food. That would cost the state budget about BGN 47 million. With this BGN 120 they will have the opportunity to buy whatever they need, the money is targeted specifically for food products. This is what Minister of Labor and Social Policy Denitsa Sacheva told The Monitor daily. "We chose this group of people because they...

January 5, 2021
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05Jan

Covid to accelerate restructuring of Australia’s pensions industry

Testing financial conditions during 2020 have added to the pressure on Australia’s superannuation industry to deliver better investment outcomes and greater cost efficiency, according to Funds Global Asia’s 2020 Australia survey conducted in partnership with Calastone. Respondents predict that this will accelerate mergers between superannuation funds, while placing fresh demands on fund providers to offer wider product choice to scheme members. The Australian pension fund, or “superannuation”, sector, has been under scrutiny from financial regulators over the past four years as...

January 5, 2021
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04Jan

There is no escape from late retirement

European countries face the challenge of the economic and social consequences of an aging population. In particular, pension systems have to adapt to the changes taking place, maintaining, on the one hand, the financial stability related to the balancing of contributions receipts and pension expenditure, and at the same time the adequacy of benefits related to the protection of pensioners from poverty and the provision of an adequate income after leaving employment. One of the key instruments...

January 4, 2021
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04Jan

Why the U.S. needs a national climate investment fund

In recent weeks, we have witnessed the power of innovation to solve catastrophic problems. Most notably, we have seen the extraordinary human accomplishment of delivering vaccines within a year to counter the novel coronavirus, COVID-19—an achievement that was accelerated by the U.S. government’s Project Warp Speed.  What many people may be less aware of is that across America and other global innovation centers, companies are striving to harness that same power to tackle climate change. Businesses of all sizes are toiling away...

January 4, 2021
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04Jan

China faces its biggest transformation to date

An ageing population, overreliance on investment and the shifting geopolitical landscape are key challenges as the Asian giant shifts gears, says David Dollar. China’s well-known story of spectacular growth, at around 10 per cent annually for 40 years, is coming to an end because of both domestic and global factors. In analysing China’s prospects for the next several decades, three particular challenges are striking: The shift from a labour-surplus to a labour-scarce society; the shift from investment to innovation as the...

January 4, 2021
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04Jan

Global investors hungry for A-shares despite tensions

China's healthy economy and expanding equities market is drawing more eyes from across the world. Australian superannuation funds, in particular, are looking to invest more. For the past two decades Chinese investors have been eager to sample the broadening array of morsels available in the country’s rapidly growing equity market. Now, more foreign asset owners are looking to join the feast, with some of Australia's superannuation funds leading the way, despite deteriorating relations between Beijing and Canberra....

January 4, 2021
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04Jan

US. Worried about retirement? Jump down ‘one of the darkest rabbit holes’ and you’ll find plenty of company

It’s ugly — and getting uglier — for retirement hopefuls these days. Just look at the data. Median household savings for Gen X, according to a recent study, is $64,000, and 81% of that cohort are worried about being able to fund their golden years. Coronavirus is making it worse, of course. Millennials, who have increasingly dipped into retirement funds to deal with the pandemic, have an average nest egg of just $23,000. Numbers aside, for an even more unsettling sense of...

January 4, 2021
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December 2020

31Dec

UK. Time for ‘auto-enrolment 2.0’?

The principle of automatic enrolment could be used by the government to support other savings goals next year, Scottish Widows has said. According to Pete Glancy, head of pension policy at Scottish Widows, the shaping of an ‘auto-enrolment 2.0’ could be a real possibility in 2021 as the government looks to encourage more people to save following the Covid crisis. Mr Glancy said: “Momentum behind increasing the financial resilience of UK households will continue, fuelled by the Covid-19 experience....

December 31, 2020
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31Dec

China orders Alibaba founder Jack Ma to pare down fintech empire

By Rupert Neate China has escalated its campaign to rein in the vast tech empire controlled by Jack Ma, the co-founder of Alibaba and one of the country’s richest people. Authorities in Beijing, who had on Christmas Eve ordered an investigation into allegations of “monopolistic practices” by Ma’s online retail giant, have now ordered his financial technology company Ant Group to scale back its operations. Pan Gongsheng, a deputy governor of China’s central bank, said Ant’s corporate governance was “not...

December 31, 2020
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