February 2018

Global pension assets hit record high

Pension fund assets in the world’s 22 largest markets grew by $4.8trn to $41.3trn (£29.3trn) last year, according to a new report from Willis Towers Watson (WLTW). This is the highest total ever recorded by the firm in the last 20 years; with a 13% increase in asset value over the course of 2017 also the largest single-year growth registered. The US continues to be the biggest market, accounting for 61.4% of worldwide pension assets, followed by the UK and...

The UK’s pensions timebomb: which companies have the biggest black holes?

If you ask experts what the scariest thing about the pensions black hole it is that no one knows how big it is. Following the collapse of Carillion, the Prime Minister said there would be “tough new rules for executives who try to line their own pockets by putting their workers’ pensions at risk.” In February last year, a green paper was issued calling for views on giving the Pensions Regulator the power to issue “substantial fines on companies for...

France and Germany push back on European pension plan

The document, discussed this week by EU member states experts, aims to influence negotiations on the future pan-European personal pensions product, one plank of the capital markets union plan. France and Germany have pushed back on two big features of the proposals. Read More: Global Capital

Brazilian court orders arrest of ex-chief of BNY Mellon Brazil unit in corruption probe

A federal court on Thursday ordered the arrest of the former chief executive officer of Bank of New York Mellon Corp’s unit in Brazil, a source with knowledge of the matter said. The court in Brasilia issued the order to detain José Carlos Xavier de Oliveira, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The court declined to comment. All proceedings are under seal. BNY Mellon declined to comment on the arrest order. The CEO of Brazilian state development bank BNDES,...

UK. Number of millionaires rises by a third as pension wealth grows

The number of millionaires in Britain has risen by a third driven by increasing pension wealth, figures from the Office for National Statistics show. The most recent figures, from July 2016, show that there are 3.5m households in the country with more than a million pounds' worth of assets, up from 2.75m in the 2012-14 figures. Overall average wealth rose by 15 per cent to £259,400 by July 2016, though the rising cost of living is not taken into account. Read More: The...

Can N.J.’s public pension fund help ease Puerto Rican foreclosure crisis?

Advocates for Puerto Rican homeowners are asking that New Jersey use its considerable influence as an investor to encourage lenders to let up on their foreclosure activity on the hurricane-ravaged island. Puerto Rico is on the verge of a foreclosure crisis, said Jim Baker of the Private Equity Stakeholder Project. And New Jersey's government worker pension fund has committed to invest billions of dollars in private equity firms Blackstone Group and TPG Capital, whose affiliates are foreclosing on Puerto Rican homeowners...

US. As Super Bowl approaches, NFL pension plan still underfunded

As fans everywhere prepare to sit down with bowls of chili and platters of wings to watch the Super Bowl, they might be interested to know that pro football players could be facing some of the same pension problems their fans are: the NFL Players’ Pension Plan is only 73 percent funded, according to an analysis from the Society of Actuaries. That’s based on data from 2015, the most recent year for which data is publicly available, and it is an improvement...

A new dawn for pensions

Like the city, Thailand’s pensions and investments landscape is a diverse and complex mix of new and old concepts, with progress being the ultimate objective. Thus, the day-long forum, aptly titled New Directions, New Perspectives, resonated well with the 300-plus asset managers and investors who attended, as it sought to seek new solutions to an age-old question: are we doing enough to retire comfortably? According to a 2017 Global Investment Report by investment manager Schroders, among Asian countries, Thailand and...

Barbados. Don’t touch our pensions, warns Phillips

The business centric political party Solutions Barbados is warning the Freundel Stuart administration not to “plunder our pensions” in a desperate bid to clear the island’s fiscal deficit and improve its foreign exchange reserves. The party’s leader Grenville Phillips II told Barbados TODAY alarm bells went off this morning when Governor of the Central Bank Cleviston Haynes said Government was considering pensions as part of the overall plan to resuscitate the stalled economy. Read more Barbados Today

UK. GPs retire early amid clampdown on multi-million pension pots

The number of GPs taking early retirement has risen sharply following a clampdown on multi-million pound pension pots, new figures show. An investigation shows 62 per cent of GPs who retired in 2016/17 did so before the age of 60 - having made up just 33 per cent of cases in 2011/12. Read more The Telegraph News