April 2018

19Apr

Startup To Solve Major Problems of Gig Economy By Building A Decentralized Network

In early 2018, a team of entrepreneurs in Singapore launched a startup called the Blue Whale Foundation, aiming to overcome the crucial problems of sharing economy, such as high commissions and no employment benefits for the self-employed. In the future, the Blue Whale platform could let any freelancer or small to medium enterprise (SME) scale their businesses and release their own token without giving up equity. When an Uber-driver’s dream come true In the early 2010s, the gig economy – also...

April 19, 2018
News
Read more...
19Apr

South Africa. Strong growth in private pensions

Private pensions have grown from strength to strength over the last five years and, in some ways, are outpacing take-home pay as can be seen in the Five-year Private Pensions Review for South Africa, released by BankservAfrica and Economists.co.za. “The BankservAfrica Private Pensions Index (BPPI) is the first time-series on private pensions as paid into bank accounts in the world. The system currently accounts for 900 000 people receiving private pensions of which BankservAfrica captures 680 000 or 75%,” says...

April 19, 2018
News, Slider
Read more...
19Apr

Norway Pension Fund gets PM invite to fund other sectors

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has invited Norway’s pension fund to invest in new sectors in India citing the complementarity of the economies of the two countries. Modi, during a bilateral meeting with Norwegian Premier Erna Solberg here, underlined the Indian openness to foreign investment and also invited Norwegian companies to invest in India, a Norwegian government statement said. Modi encouraged the Norwegian State Pension Fund Global to consider investing in new sectors in India, it said. Read More: Deccan Herald

April 19, 2018
News, Slider
Read more...
19Apr

UK. Pension news: OAPs risk ‘losing THOUSANDS’ from ‘frozen pensions’ if they retire abroad

WORKERS dreaming of retirement in the sun could lose out on tens of thousands of pounds worth of state pension if they pick the wrong country, campaigners say. As many as 550,000 Britons living overseas are existing on "frozen pensions", with some receiving only £50 a week instead of a full state entitlement currently worth £165. Despite paying national insurance all their lives, their state pension could be frozen at the rate when they move - meaning they face a decline...

April 19, 2018
News, Slider
Read more...
18Apr

Pension trustees must consider investment climate change risks

Although scheme trustees are not explicitly required by law to consider climate change risk, it is becoming increasingly apparent that climate change issues may materially prejudice investment returns. Trustees should therefore be prepared to manage climate change risk through their investment strategy, strategic asset allocation, investment manager selection process and stewardship activities according to the report, by Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, and the University of Leeds. The report aims to clarify how trustees can, and should, consider...

April 18, 2018
News, Slider
Read more...
18Apr

1 million Americans are counting on Congress to save their pensions

Many of them were construction workers or truck drivers who belonged to a union and paid into pension funds set up to cover workers from multiple employers. But about 100 of these pension plans are expected to run out of money in the next two decades, according to a report from the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. Read More: CNN

April 18, 2018
News
Read more...
18Apr

German regional ministers relaunch push for auto-enrolment

Ministers in the German federal state of Hesse have relaunched a drive for the introduction of auto-enrolment to boost private pension saving. A resolution to support their idea was brought to the upper chamber of parliament, the Bundesrat, at the end of March. It was promptly assigned to various of the upper chamber’s committees, which have postponed debating the proposal. IPE understands this is normal procedure. Under the Hessian ministers’ proposal, employees would be automatically signed up for a private pension...

April 18, 2018
News, Slider
Read more...
18Apr

As the senior population grows, aging is becoming a major investing theme

The demographic shift the world is going through presents a major trend that's worth investing in, according to one expert. "Aging is, with no doubt, one of the strongest, one of the least cyclical, one of the most permanent trends in the market," Vafa Ahmadi, head of thematic equity management at Amundi's CPR Asset Management, told CNBC's Dan Murphy. Given those factors, investing around the aging population makes "good sense," Ahmadi said at the Credit Suisse Global Megatrends Conference in Singapore. Read...

April 18, 2018
News, Slider
Read more...
17Apr

Growing financial sector reform starts to deliver private finance for sustainability

Huge progress on reforming the global financial system over the last four years has started to deliver desperately needed financing for sustainability and set up the next wave of action, according to a new United Nations report released today. The final report of the UN Environment Inquiry into the Design of a Sustainable Financial System highlights opportunities to align the financial system with sustainable development, as well as pathways to success. The report offers real signs that a shift to...

April 17, 2018
News, Slider
Read more...
17Apr

US. The Mirage of Pension-Fund Activism

In her 2016 book No Shortcuts: Organizing for Power in the New Gilded Age, union organizer Jane McAlevey argued that unions have repeatedly and fruitlessly searched for quick fixes to the long decline of organized labor. This hunt for a magic bullet has diverted unions from investing in the single enduring and indispensable source of working-class power: deep organizing to build workers’ collective capacities for struggle. One alluring shortcut to renewing labor’s strength has been to try to exploit the...

April 17, 2018
News, Slider
Read more...