March 2018

UK. Striking university staff irate over pensions deal

Strikes at UK universities are to continue after staff overwhelmingly rejected a revised offer on their pensions. The University and College Union was forced to throw out the deal it had negotiated with university employers after members voted against it. The union will now draw up detailed plans aimed at disrupting summer examinations in an escalation of the industrial action, which is now in its fourth week. The deal, which had been reached on Monday night after six days of talks...

March 13, 2018
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12Mar

Government invests £300m to address ageing society challenge

The Government is investing £300m from its industrial strategy challenge fund to help prepare for 'the challenge of an ageing society'. The funding will support better diagnosis for UK patients through artificial intelligence and technology at new regional centres, while 500,000 volunteers will have their genome sequenced to help develop early diagnosis and treatments. The grants also include an extra £40m for a new dementia research institute. Read More: Local Gov UK

March 12, 2018
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12Mar

Dumped Tahiti pension reform still priority – Fritch

French Polynesia's president Edouard Fritch says if he wins this year's election he will make the pension reform the priority of priorities. Mr Fritch made the comment after withdrawing the reform plan following a general strike during which demonstrators forced their way into the assembly. His government planned to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62, saying failure to make the change would bankrupt the system in a couple of years. Read More: Radio NZ

March 12, 2018
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12Mar

Mexican state pension fund spent millions on failing builder – sources

Mexico’s state workers’ pension fund plowed more than $20 million into ICA (ICA.MX) and became the largest shareholder as the builder spiraled toward insolvency, according to people familiar with the matter, with the fund’s investment set to be wiped out in a restructuring. PensionIssste, which manages about 195 billion pesos ($10.5 billion) of mostly government workers’ retirement money, became the largest shareholder in ICA, with a stake of almost 10 percent, said three people with knowledge of the investment who...

March 12, 2018
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09Mar

Australia. Pension Fund of the Year 2018

QSuper was named Pension Fund of the Year at the 2018 Conexus Financial Superannuation Awards. Labor Senator Jenny McAllister presented the award to QSuper executive general manager, strategy and performance, Glen Hipwood, at a black-tie gala dinner held at the Ivy Ballroom in Sydney on March 8. Hipwood said the QSuper team was proud to have won the award for the fourth consecutive year. Over the last 12 months, a focus for the fund has been making sure pension-aged members know about...

March 9, 2018
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09Mar

EU and asset managers clash over ‘sustainable’ investing plan

The European Union has proposed making it a formal requirement for asset managers to consider “sustainability” when picking investments, a move the EU’s 23 trillion euro ($28.5 trillion) funds industry swiftly dismissed as a “tick-the-box” exercise. The EU wants more money going into sustainable and “green” projects that help cut greenhouse gas emissions, as part of a wider “capital markets union” project to expand funding from financial markets for companies and growth. In an “action plan” published on Thursday, the European...

March 9, 2018
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09Mar

French Polynesia pension march attracts thousands

As part of a general strike launched by a union umbrella group two days ago, marchers this morning converged on the centre of Papeete from three directions. Police said about 4500 people took part while the union says 10,000 people marched. The government wants the assembly to adopt the reform to hike the retirement age from 60 to 62 during this afternoon's sitting of the assembly. The government said it had no option but to change pension eligibility criteria to secure the...

March 9, 2018
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09Mar

UK retirement bill up more than £1 trillion in five years as pension crisis escalates

The UK’s pension funding crisis reached a new milestone this week as the Office for National Statistics revealed that liabilities rose to £7.6 trillion at the end of 2015. The figure, which is the total amount promised to pay for Britons’ future retirement income, includes £5.3 trillion of pension entitlements that were the responsibility of central and local government, most of which – about £4 trillion – came from State Pension entitlements. The remaining £2.3 trillion were private sector employee pension...

March 9, 2018
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08Mar

Latvia should raise basic pension to reduce pensioner poverty

Latvia should strengthen old-age safety nets and raise the basic state pension in order to reduce pensioner poverty, especially among women, and address the challenge of a fast declining population, according to a new OECD report. The OECD Review of the Pension System in Latvia highlights the challenges facing the pension system. Latvia’s working-age population (people aged between 20 and 64 years) is expected to fall by about 20% over the next two decades, due to low fertility rates, increasing...

March 8, 2018
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08Mar

Stock Aversion Hurts Turkey Pension Savers, Manager Says

Turkish pension savers have an aversion to the best-performing asset class -- and it’s costing them, according to money manager Gedik Portfoy. Stocks account for just 11.7 percent of assets held in Turkish funds, the latest figures from the country’s Capital Markets Board show. That’s “too little” for individual pension investments designed to deliver long-term returns, and lower than levels in both developed countries and other emerging markets, said Halim Cun, the firm’s chief executive officer. Pension-fund investors don’t pay enough...

March 8, 2018
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