February 2022
15Feb

Zimbabwe’s FML faces investigation over asset separation law defiance

FML, the second-largest life assurance company in Zimbabwe by market share that also provides retirement, medical insurance, micro-insurance and other long-term financial security products, has also effectively defied the law on separation of insurance and pension businesses due to internal squabbles over the issue, which has led to some executives being removed. Zimbabwe’s leading financial services conglomerate, CBZ Holdings, is in the process of taking over FMHL to build a business behemoth in the local and regional markets. In a letter...

February 15, 2022
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08Feb

Ireland. Fix pensions now or risk future misery for a million workers who aren’t saving

Frustration is growing over the glacial pace at which successive governments have approached our deepening pensions crisis. CSO figures published last week show two-thirds of workers aged 20 to 69 have employment-based or personal pension savings to supplement the state pension. Read also Jamaica. Tourism pension fund likely to grow faster than traditional funds – Goffe That might seem reassuring, but once you exclude the public sector, there are around a million private sector workers with no supplementary pension savings at...

February 8, 2022
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04Feb

Nigeria: Alleged Pension Fraud – EFCC Closes Case Against Ex-Head of Service, Steve Oronsaye

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), on Thursday, rested its case in a pension fraud trial involving a former Head of Service of the Federation, Stephen Oronsaye. The anti-graft agency closed its case with the testimony of its 21st prosecution witness. It will now be the turn of Mr Oronsaye and his co-defendants to open their defence to the 49 charges of money laundering involving N2 billion in public funds. EFCC alleged in the charges at the Federal High Court in...

February 4, 2022
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02Feb

Iranian Teachers Demand Fair Pay, Pension Adjustment

Hundreds of teachers are protesting across Iran to demand a fair pay, adjustment of pensions, and the release of their detained colleagues. The protests in dozens of cities follow two days of sit-ins in schools where teachers had reportedly gone on strike. On January 31, teachers staged a protest outside the parliament building in Tehran and in front of Education Ministry offices in other cities, including Shiraz, Isfahan, and Ahvaz, to present their demands. Last month, Iran's parliament passed legislation to raise...

February 2, 2022
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01Feb

U.S. public pension funds may turn to more ‘aggressive’ investment, report says

U.S. public pension funds will likely have to switch to more aggressive investment strategies in the coming years to fill funding gaps despite assets held by sovereign investors having grown to record levels amid the 2021 equity market boom, a new report said. On average, the difference between assets and liabilities at U.S. public pension funds, known as the "funded ratio," remains "unsatisfactory" at less than 75%, sovereign investor specialist Global SWF said in a report. To boost returns, many will...

February 1, 2022
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January 2022
25Jan

UK. Pension transfer activity hits lowest level since 2018

An annualised rate of 50 members out of every 10,000 transferred their pensions in December according to the XPS Pensions Group's transfer activity index — the lowest rate since XPS started tracking this activity four years ago. Head of member options Mark Barlow said a "slump" in transfer activity was common over the festive period. "But this is the lowest rate of transfers we have seen since we started the index in 2018," he said. "Although it's unlikely to be affecting...

January 25, 2022
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25Jan

Solving China’s population puzzle

China Daily's Chen Meiling interviewed Yuan Xin, a professor of demography at the Population and Development Research Institute, School of Economics of Nankai University in Tianjin, on the significance of the latest population data. Following are the extracts from the interview: Q: The Chinese mainland's population reached about 1.41 billion at the end of 2021, an increase of 480,000 over 2020, according to the data released by the National Bureau of Statistics in mid-January. What is your view on the...

January 25, 2022
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21Jan

UK. MPs criticise ‘shameful’ underpaying of state pensions

The long-term underpayment of thousands of state pensioners, mainly widows, divorcees and women who rely on their husband’s pension contributions for some of their pension, is a “shameful shambles”, according to the public spending watchdog. About 134,000 people have had their state pension underpaid to the tune of £1bn, according to a Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) estimate. The vast majority of those affected are women who should have had their pension topped up when their husband retired even if...

January 21, 2022
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21Jan

Germany wants to attract 400,000 skilled workers from abroad each year

Germany's new coalition government wants to attract 400,000 qualified workers from abroad each year to tackle both a demographic imbalance and labour shortages in key sectors that risk undermining the recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. "The shortage of skilled workers has become so serious by now that it is dramatically slowing down our economy," Christian Duerr, parliamentary leader of the co-governing Free Democrats (FDP), told business magazine WirtschaftsWoche. "We can only get the problem of an ageing workforce under control with...

January 21, 2022
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21Jan

US. Pension funds pin their hopes on inflation

America’s biggest private sector pension plans did so badly last year that they earned barely half as much as the traditional low-risk, low-fee balanced portfolio of stocks and bonds. So report international pension consultants Milliman & Co. It says something about the usual performance of U.S. company pension plans that Milliman calls this 2021 result a “win.” (On the bright side, though, company pensions still did much better than Social Security, whose investments effectively lost money.) The 100 biggest private sector pension plans...

January 21, 2022
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