January 2025
10Jan

As US banks leave net-zero, are Canadian banks close behind?

  Canada’s largest banks are reconsidering their involvement in the Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA), as reported by BNN Bloomberg. The alliance, established to promote climate financing, has recently faced several high-profile departures. US banks such as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Citigroup, and JPMorgan Chase have withdrawn, citing increased Republican criticism of ‘woke’ capitalism and doubts about the effectiveness of voluntary measures in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) and Bank of Montreal (BMO), two of...

January 10, 2025
News, Slider,
Read more...
09Jan

US. Time to act: The role of pension trustees in reaching net zero

Asset owners, business leaders and pensions funds collectively hold the power to put the global economy on a sustainable footing. Pension funds are in a unique position of both vulnerability and strength: susceptible to the risks of an unsustainable future, but possessing the influence to promote positive outcomes. With just five years until the Paris Agreement’s 2030 deadline for halving carbon emissions, we face the possibility that we will fail to achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (see below) and...

January 9, 2025
News, Slider, ,
Read more...
09Jan

Why millions of young Chinese are refusing to make pension payments

China’s pension system is in danger of running out of cash within a decade due to severe underfunding. Now it faces a new threat: Tens of millions of mostly young workers are refusing to pay into it. On today’s Big Take Asia Podcast, host K. Oanh Ha talks to Bloomberg’s Qianwei Zhang about why workers are boycotting the system and what’s at stake for the struggling economy and the Communist Party. Here is a lightly edited transcript of the conversation: Gao Pengcheng...

January 9, 2025
News, Slider, ,
Read more...
09Jan

Vietnam. Benefits of paying pensions and benefits without using cash

Thuan Duc Commune (Dong Hoi City, Quang Binh) became the first locality in Dong Hoi City to achieve 100% of pensioners and social insurance benefits receiving through bank accounts (ATM cards). In the middle of December 2024 month, with the last cases receiving pensions and social insurance benefits in cash switching to receiving them via e-commerce, Thuan Duc commune officially closed the list of social security payments via ATM cards at a rate of 100%. As one of the people on...

January 9, 2025
News, Slider, ,
Read more...
09Jan

US. Pensions Got a Boost From Strong Markets in 2024, But They’re Still In Trouble

A solid year for the U.S. stock markets resulted in better-than-expected returns for state and local pensions last year. However, that boost may not be enough to pull them out of trouble. Pensions notched an average annual return of 10.3% in 2024, higher than the projected 6.87%, according to a new report from Equable Institute, a think tank focused on pension research.12 Yet public pension returns still lagged behind the gains of the broader equity markets–the S&P 500 rose more than 23% in 2024. The...

January 9, 2025
News, Slider,
Read more...
08Jan

Finally, U.S. pension plans reach fully funded status

For the first time in 17 years, at the close of 2024 pension plans sponsored by large U.S. companies were fully funded to meet future financial obligations. That’s according to Willis Towers Watson’s latest funded-status analysis, which examined pension plan data for 361 Fortune 1000 companies with a calendar fiscal year. The analysis estimated that, in the aggregate, those companies’ plans were 100% funded. The companies’ combined pension obligations declined by 8%, from an estimated $1.25 trillion at the end of 2023...

January 8, 2025
News, Slider,
Read more...
08Jan

UK politics needs to take a long-term view on social care

Past attempts to reform social care by both Labour and the Conservatives have failed.  The recent commission of an independent review led by Baroness Louise Casey into the state of social care provides a beacon of hope. Nicholas Barr argues that a long-term view on social care is the only plausible solution. Enjoying this post? Then sign up to our newsletter and receive a weekly roundup of all our articles. Social care in England, though a known problem, has remained chronically underfunded for decades, and has...

January 8, 2025
News, Slider, ,
Read more...
08Jan

Japan’s GPIF-commissioned report finds gaps in infrastructure assets data

Fund managers’ current data reporting practices for infrastructure assets do not provide Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund and other asset owners with adequate information to measure fair value and manage risks in their portfolios, a report commissioned by the pension fund found. Tokyo-based GPIF had ¥252.86 trillion ($1.61 trillion) in assets as of Sept. 30. Money managers that follow ethical guidance under the Global Investment Performance Standards are expected to provide “a full and fair disclosure of their performance,” but research...

January 8, 2025
News, Slider, ,
Read more...
08Jan

Kenya. Govt Introduces New Tax Laws on Pensions & Retirement Benefits

The Retirement Benefits Authority (RBA) has announced new tax reforms on pensions and retirement benefits. In a notice, the authority indicated that the reforms were introduced by the Tax Laws (Amendment) Act 2024, effective December 27, 2024. Further, the notice indicated that the changes would address current economic challenges by offering increased tax-free pension contribution limits among other changes. “The Retirement Benefits Authority (RBA) is informing stakeholders and the public about important reforms introduced by the Tax Laws (Amendment) Act 2024, which...

January 8, 2025
News, Slider,
Read more...
07Jan

Sustainable finance is braced for its toughest year yet

Before most investors had even returned to the office after the Christmas break last week, it became clear that sustainable finance is in for another rough year. On Thursday, Morgan Stanley became the latest big name to abandon the private sector’s main climate group, the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ). GFANZ, as it’s more commonly known, was set up to help its 700+ members work out how to develop the right targets, accounting metrics and investment strategies to achieve...

January 7, 2025
News, Slider, ,
Read more...