September 2017

07Sep

France’s Macron plans end to retire-young rail pensions

President Emmanuel Macron wants to scrap rules allowing some state rail workers to retire on a full pension up to 10 years before most other French workers. The reform plan risks inflaming tensions with labor unions who led the biggest strikes of recent decades in 1995 against a similar proposal that the government of the time floated before abandoning it and losing power. Macron has said his government will embark on overhauling France’s myriad pension schemes in early 2018, creating...

September 7, 2017
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06Sep

Assets at world’s largest pension funds return to growth

Assets under management at the world's largest pension funds increased in value by 6.1% in 2016, representing a total of $15.7 trillion, according to the latest global 300 research from Willis Towers Watson (NASDAQ:WLTW), a leading global advisory, broking and solutions company. The figures for year-end 2016 show a return to growth, following a 3.4% decline in 2015, while cumulative growth in assets since 2011 now stands at 23.4%. The top 20 funds by asset size in the research...

September 6, 2017
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06Sep

More Corruption Allegations Mean Brazil Pension Reform Dies Another Day

Brazil's pension reform, which no one in their right mind believes is passing congress this year, got yet another death sentence on Monday. Lower House Speaker Rodrigo Maia said this month was a no-go for entitlement talks. Maia blamed new allegations of corruption against President Michel Temer. "I think that with another example of foul play that we are hearing about in the media makes it difficult for us to pass any proposals for changes to the constitution until the end of...

September 6, 2017
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06Sep

Asia Pacific: Region’s pension funds grow faster than global average

Assets under management with Asia Pacific's largest pension funds rose by 7% from a year earlier to US$3.7 trillion at the end of 2016, lifting the overall ranking of the region's sovereign and public sector pension funds by asset size, according to the latest global 300 research from Willis Towers Watson, the leading global advisory, broking and solutions company. In a return to growth following a 3.4% decline in 2015, based on asset size, Asia Pacific pension funds outperformed those...

September 6, 2017
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06Sep

Norway pension fund plans big changes for bond portfolio

Norway’s US$990bn sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest, plans radical changes to its fixed income portfolio by cutting corporate and emerging market bonds from the benchmark index it uses, and shortening maturities. If approved by Norway’s finance ministry, the changes will leave only government bonds in US dollars, euros and British pounds as part of the benchmark, compared with 23 currencies currently. The fund said they are the three most liquid currencies. Norges Bank Investment Management, which manages the fund on...

September 6, 2017
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06Sep

Australia. Pensioners claim rebates on $31 million worth of rates

Canberra pensioners have received rebates on $31 million worth of rates in the past three years, on land worth a cumulative $14.4 billion dollars. More than 18,000 property owners are using the pensioners rebate scheme for rates, figures revealed in an answer to a question on notice in the ACT Legislative Assembly. However the number of applications for rates deferrals on the basis of hardship have doubled on the same time last year, after the ACT government changed the formula for calculating...

September 6, 2017
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05Sep

Market conditions a challenge for institutional asset allocation, says MFS

Institutional investors need to adjust their investment horizons and return targets to take a longer-term view through the market cycle, according to US-based MFS Investment Management (MFS). The toughest challenge for institutional investors such as defined benefit (DB) pension plans is to optimise their risk-adjusted returns in the current market environment, according to Ravi Venkataraman, senior managing director of MFS Institutional Advisors, the institutional unit of MFS. One of the key issues is that these investors have little understanding about how...

September 5, 2017
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04Sep

UK. Robots and AI can bring down pension age, says TUC

The TUC has urged the government to use productivity gains from the greater use of robots and artificial intelligence to reverse planned changes to the state pension age. Before its annual congress in Brighton, the TUC said higher levels of productivity thanks to technological innovation ought to bring greater benefits for working people. It said recent progress had mainly benefited business owners, rather than being shared across the workforce through better wages and working conditions. Analysis from the accountants PricewaterhouseCoopers suggests...

September 4, 2017
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04Sep

Nigeria. Retirees to use voice, fingerprints for pension

Operators of the Contributory Pension Scheme are putting in place a biometric method to improve documentations of retirees and ensure proper payments on entitlements. Some of the characteristics of the process will include the use of fingerprints, voiceprints, facial features, writing patterns, iris patterns and hand geometry. According to the Pension Funds Operators Association, the method involves the use of passwords and PIN numbers, to ensure highest level of security. While noting that biometrics being introduced would involve data collection, transmission,...

September 4, 2017
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04Sep

Switzerland. Pensions 2020 is a reform in name only

The original primary goal of the reform was to maintain the level of support offered by our pensions system. With support from the government, parliament reformulated this goal and – with a wafer-thin majority – pushed through a reform that expands old age pensions instead of restructuring it. Pensions 2020 has degenerated into an unfair, superficial reform that makes a mockery of the inter-generational contract. The reform of the old age and disability pension is unfair, because it leads two...

September 4, 2017
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