July 2018

19Jul

South Africa. Nene appoints new advisory board for govt pensions administrator

Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene today reappointed Joe Lesejane as chairperson of the new advisory board for the Government Pensions Administration Agency (GPAA). GPAA administers the payment of pensions on behalf of the Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF) and National Treasury. The advisory board advises the finance minister on the administration of pensions as well as the performance, governance and operations of the GPAA. In a statement, Nene said the appointment of the new advisory board for a two-year term was effective...

July 19, 2018
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19Jul

Kenya. MPs demand evidence of UK colonial pensioners’ existence

The National Treasury has two weeks to ascertain the actual existence of British colonial pensioners that Kenya continues to pay millions of shillings 55 years after Independence. The National Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) issued the directive after it summoned Director of Pensions Shem Nyakutu for a meeting to explain why Nairobi continues to pay people who left Kenya in 1963. “These were colonial officers, who were retrenched through Africanisation. The Government of Kenya undertook to pay their pension through UK’s...

July 19, 2018
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19Jul

Russia. Pension reform: the Kremlin is saved from the riots of 2022

The chamber has studied the bill to raise the retirement age, and came to the conclusion that he needs improvement. This is stated in the opinion of the Chamber signed by the head of Department Alexey Kudrin. So, the chamber did not find in the draft law “calculations that determine the relationship between raising the retirement age and create the conditions for annual indexation of pensions above the rate of inflation”. Read More: MICE Times

July 19, 2018
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19Jul

Venezuela senior citizens block streets demanding pension checks

Perched on plastic lawn chairs and leaning on canes, scores of retirees protested Wednesday, July 18, to demand payment of their retirement benefits in crisis-hit Venezuela. About 200 senior citizens blocked traffic on Urdaneta Avenue, a stone's throw from the presidential palace. "They are not paying people's whole pension. We are just getting two million" bolivars, worth 60 US cents at black market rates," said Basilio Octo, 68. Read More: Rappler

July 19, 2018
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18Jul

UK Brexit white paper creates yet more issues for expats

If you’re stuck between deciding to leave the UK before March 2019 and staying put whilst hoping for the best, the recent White Paper’s stance on the UK expat dilemma may help – or it may not! Both Britons still in the UK and their counterparts who’ve made European Union states their permanent home could be forgiven for giving up on planning their futures, as no-one knows what’s set in tablets of stone and what isn’t. The UK government’s recently...

July 18, 2018
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18Jul

Malaysia. KWAP sets aside RM800m for global ESG investment

Retirement Fund Inc (KWAP) has provisioned some RM800 million to be invested in the environmental, social and governance (ESG) aspect globally through two international fund managers. KWAP CEO Datuk Wan Kamaruzaman Wan Ahmad (picture) said a total of RM3.8 billion has been set aside for the pension fund’s ESG investment, for both of its local and international portfolios, of which RM520 million has been materialised globally. “Out of the RM3.8 billion, we allocate RM2 billion to our external fund managers for...

July 18, 2018
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18Jul

Greece Sees Highest Pension Spend in EU

Greece spends the highest percentage of its GDP on pensions compared to other European Union member states, Eurostat says. Despite the fact that pensions have been slashed dramatically during the economic crisis, the Greek state continues to give a large part of its GDP to pensioners, the highest percentage than any other EU nation. According to the European statistical authority, pension expenditure in 2015 amounted to 17.8 percent of GDP, the highest in the EU. The percentage of GDP does not...

July 18, 2018
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18Jul

US. Public Pensions Adopt Cost Sharing Mechanisms to Stem Volatility

In spring 2016, Sandy Matheson, the executive director of the Maine Public Employees Retirement System, was panicking. After earning 2 percent the previous fiscal year, record low bond yields and global stock market turmoil were dragging the pension’s returns even lower -- and further away from its 6.9 percent assumed annual return. She modeled government pension payments under a scenario where investments returned 4 percent a year for four years and then 6.9 percent thereafter. The result: government contributions would increase...

July 18, 2018
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18Jul

UK. CMA proposes pension investment reforms

Investment consultants advise pension trustees, who oversee companies’ pension schemes, on how to invest their funds. Some pension schemes delegate investment decisions to fiduciary managers. These firms have influence over half of all UK households’ retirement savings and work with pension scheme assets worth at least £1.6 trillion. Good investment management helps ensure people receive the pension they expect upon retirement. In September last year the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) launched a market investigation into this sector, at the...

July 18, 2018
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17Jul

Canada. Quebec’s Caisse de depot pension fund investing $250 million in Avison Young

The Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec pension fund has made a $250-million preferred equity investment in Avison Young, a commercial real estate services firm. Avison Young says the money will help fund acquisitions and hiring as part of its global expansion, while a portion will also be used to buy back shares held by Parallel49 Equity and others. The Caisse invested in a newly authorized class of non-voting preferred shares of the firm, though the terms of the transaction...

July 17, 2018
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