June 2018

12Jun

Kenya launched its first universal social pension

Starting this week, more than half a million older women and men in Kenya are receiving their first ever pensions. Under the new Government-funded Inua Jamii 70 and Above universal social pension, launched by President Uhuru Kenyatta on Saturday 2 June, all Kenyans over 70 will receive 2,000 shillings (just under US$20) per month. This scheme is an important step towards ensuring all Kenyans, regardless of circumstance, have access to a reliable income in older age. It is also now the...

June 12, 2018
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12Jun

China. Premier Li stresses efforts to ensure basic pension payments

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has stressed efforts to implement a central management system to ensure basic pension fund payments. A central system for basic pension funds of enterprise employees will be established to strengthen sustainability of the basic pension scheme and balance the pension payment burden in different regions, according to instructions made by Li. The instructions were conveyed Monday at a conference on the implementation of the system. Read More: XinhuaNet

June 12, 2018
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12Jun

UK. Most top workplace pension providers risk supporting chemical warfare

That is according to a new report from investment watchdog ShareAction, which reveals that millions of pension savers could be inadvertently supporting conflicts across the world. For their default funds, Aviva, The People’s Pension, Royal London, Scottish Widows, Aegon, and Standard Life all fail to screen out firms producing toxic components of harmful weapons. The research also shows that Aegon has no exclusion policy for controversial weapons in any of its funds, allowing investments in anti-personnel mines and cluster bombs. Read More: The...

June 12, 2018
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12Jun

Canada pension fund preps for green bond issue

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) intends to issue its inaugural green bond and thus become the first pension fund to do so, it announced on Monday. The company did not disclose the size of the offering but pointed out it had announced plans over the past year to spend over CAD 3 billion (USD 2.3bn/EUR 1.95bn) on renewable energy assets. The proceeds from the issue will go towards investments in wind and solar projects, sustainable water and wastewater management...

June 12, 2018
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11Jun

Australia. Citizenship discount for migrant pensioners, widows scrapped

Migrant pensioners, veterans and widows who receive Centrelink payments will soon have to pay full price when applying for Australian citizenship after Home Affairs minister Peter Dutton removed a regulation that offered them a discounted price. Most people pay a $285 fee when they apply for citizenship, but disadvantaged pensioners and widows have long been granted a concession rate of $20 or $40. Mr Dutton lodged a legislative instrument on Thursday last week that removes the concession, effective from July 1....

June 11, 2018
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11Jun

US. Should We Continue To Count On Employers For Retirement Provision?

Yes, this is a question. It's not even a rhetorical question. It's something that I ask myself, and I invite readers to think about. We take the so-called "three-legged stool" a bit for granted, don't we? Employers historically provided pension benefits for their employees, in a time and a place when it made sense for them to do so, when they relied on those pensions to scoot aging employees out the door at a traditional normal or even early retirement...

June 11, 2018
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11Jun

Nigeria. Micro pension will create next phase of growth — Stanbic IBTC Pension boss

How will the proposed micro pension impact growth of the pension industry?  The proposed micro pension scheme is one initiative with great potential capable of landing the industry into its next phase of growth. Regardless of the inherent challenges, the micro pension scheme has the capability to deepen asset accumulation in Nigeria considering that 70 percent of Nigeria's working population operates in the informal sector. Read More: Vanguard Nigeria

June 11, 2018
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11Jun

The World’s Biggest Pension Fund Struggles With Sustainability

Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund has nearly $1.5 trillion in assets and a legion of external asset managers running its portfolio. The GPIF sees itself as a “super-long-term investor” with the goal of a century or more of sustainable investment and outflows. Managing money for that long is a matter of stewardship, not just picking assets — and in the past few years, the GPIF has included environmental, social and governance factors as part of its stewardship responsibilities. For the...

June 11, 2018
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08Jun

Millennials and retirement: How bad is it?

Concern about the financial health of America’s younger generations is growing—especially millennials, a demographic boom that came of age in an environment of unstable work and record levels of student debt. Experts worry that millennials are falling so far behind previous generations that their retirement may be at risk. My research suggests that those concerns are real, and millennials really are building wealth more slowly than the other working generations. But they are not insurmountable—as long as millennials are willing...

June 8, 2018
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08Jun

UK sees use of blockchain as nonviable for welfare and benefits system

The UK parliament faces an increasing number of questions concerning cryptocurrencies and the technology behind them. The stance of the UK officials, however, remains cautious. On Thursday, June 7, 2018, Kit Malthouse, Conservative MP of the House of Commons, had to respond to a question asked earlier by Martin Docherty-Hughes ( of West Dunbartonshire) about the potential applications of blockchain. He asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recommendations were made to her Department as a result...

June 8, 2018
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