May 2017
01May

Triple-lock: Call for pensions policy to be revamped

Steve Webb, pension minister from 2010 to 2015 and now a director at mutual insurer Royal London, has proposed a "middle way" on state pension policy. The triple-lock sees the state pension rise in line with wages, inflation or by 2.5% - whichever is highest. However, it is becoming increasingly expensive to maintain and some have called for it to be scrapped. A recent review by former CBI director-general John Cridland, who was appointed as the government's independent reviewer of state pension...

May 1, 2017
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01May

Royal Mail tweaked pension proposal prompts violent response from CWU

Royal Maill have confirmed that theie current Defined Benefit pension scheme, will close to future accrual on the 31st of March 2018, subject to Trustee approval. This has, as expected, caused a bit of a reaction from the Unions. As part of their 2018 Pension Review, Royal Mail have been working with the CWU and Unite/CMA on a sustainable and affordable solution for some time. A couple of weeks ago the CWU said that a “defined benefit Wage in Retirement...

May 1, 2017
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01May

Sustainable finance, financial regulators, and the changing landscape in Nigeria

Today, Kodak is gone because it did not pay close attention to the threat posed by the smartphone technology to its business. It did not adapt to the changing nature of its business environment. The rest now is history. Sustainability is the potential new threat, if ignored or taken for granted. Sustainability has become a new mantra, a philosophy of sorts. It however means different things to different people. If one takes the literary meaning of the word, it simply...

May 1, 2017
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April 2017

28Apr

Nigeria. Removal of PenCom Management Team, Intrigues and Legal Questions

Iyobosa Uwugiaren highlights the legal implications of the recent removal of PenCom’s management team by the federal government The seeming recent political and ethnic scheming that led to the removal of the Director General of the National Pension Commission (PenCom), Mrs. Chinelo Anohu-Amazu by President Muhammadu Buhari has continued to produce huge controversy among critical stakeholders in the pension funds administrators (PFA). The president, last week, announced Alhaji Aliyu Abdulrrahman Dikko as a replacement for Mrs. Anohu-Amazu along with other new...

April 28, 2017
News, OP Ed
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28Apr

Royal Mail says considering how to replace pension plan after union backlash

Britain's Royal Mail said on Friday it was looking at ways to replace the defined benefit pension scheme it plans to scrap at the end of March 2018, after a backlash from unions over the closure of the older scheme. Royal Mail, the British postal service privatised in 2013, said it was one of only a few major companies that still has employees in a defined benefit scheme, a type of pension that pays out according to employees' final...

April 28, 2017
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28Apr

India. Market-linked assured returns pension plan runs into hurdles

The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority’s (PFRDA) proposal to offer minimum assured returns on market-linked pension plans is facing resistance from other financial regulators and fund managers, said three people with direct knowledge of the matter, including a PFRDA official. The matter was discussed in the Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC) meeting held on 17 April. As a way out, the pension regulator has suggested an inter-regulatory committee to work out the modalities. In 2016, based on a provision in...

April 28, 2017
News, OP Ed
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27Apr

UK. Theresa May ‘to KEEP pensions triple lock due to General Election voter backlash fears’

The Prime Minister avoided providing definite answers as to whether she may ditch the policy during the last session of PMQs before the General Election. But senior Tory’s have allegedly suggested she may keep the scheme because the financial savings may not be worth the political risk. One senior Tory told the Daily Mail: “It has to be tackled in the long run, but I suspect in the end we won’t touch it in the manifesto. “It is not sustainable in the...

April 27, 2017
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27Apr

Canadian pension fund CPPIB targets new investment avenues in India

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), the country's largest pension fund manager, is exploring opportunities in India's financial services, telecoms and logistics sectors to expand its bets in the South Asian economy, CPPIB's Asia Pacific head Suyi Kim said on Wednesday. CPPIB, which has poured more than C$4 billion ($3 billion) into real estate and other investments in the country, will expand its eight-member team in India in a measured manner as it looks boost the share of investment in...

April 27, 2017
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27Apr

Brazil. Pension reform will avoid “radical” measures, says minister

Reform of Social Security During seminar, holder of the Ministry of Planning, Budget and Management said that the proposal of the federal government is "gradual." Without change, budget will be "unfeasible" Aimed by the government as essential for sustainability of public accounts, pension reform will prevent "radical" solutions from being taken in the future to contain the system's deficit. With the change of the rules of retirement, the Minister of Planning, Budget and Management, Dyogo Oliveira, said on Tuesday (25) that...

April 27, 2017
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27Apr

US. IRI wants tax reform, but not at expense of retirement plans

The Insured Retirement Institute is urging the Trump administration and Congress to tread lightly in considering tax reforms that would strip incentives to save in qualified retirement plans. In an extensive letter to the Commerce and Treasury Secretaries and Republican and Democrat leaders on tax policy in both chambers of Congress, IRI says proposals that would limit the tax preferred treatment of contributions to employer-sponsored retirement plans would “risk significantly impairing retirement security” for the country. “With 30 million Baby Boomers...

April 27, 2017
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