December 2020

17Dec

UK. Canadian pension fund takes control of Trafford Centre

A pension fund has taken control of the Trafford Centre after administrators received "no viable bids" for it. The shopping centre, which attracts about 30 million visitors a year, went up for sale in August after owner Intu Properties (IP) entered administration. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), a key lender to IP, has taken ownership as the principal creditor. CPPIB's Geoff Souter said despite "challenging" retail conditons, the centre still had "strong prospects". The Canadian fund had provided...

December 17, 2020
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16Dec

US. Labor Department Finishes Fiduciary Rule for Retirement Plans

The Labor Department completed on Tuesday the Trump administration’s fiduciary rule governing advice affecting the trillions of dollars in retirement accounts. Read also US. Workers Tap Retirement Savings as a Last Resort But because the regulation won’t go into effect until after President-elect Joe Biden takes office, it is likely to be revised by the new administration. Read also Divest or direct? Pension funds weigh their options in the climate crisis “I don’t expect it to survive in its current form,”...

December 16, 2020
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16Dec

Canada’s Largest Pension Says Inflation Could Rise in Rebound

By Paula Sambo Canada’s largest pension fund says policy measures across the globe to address the Covid-19 pandemic could fuel inflation after years of under-inflation while also spurring a rebound in employment and business investment. “We’re keeping an eye on this because central banks have adjusted frameworks,” Mark Machin, chief executive officer of Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, said in an interview Tuesday. “There is also the risk of a wall of money in savings accounts -- $13 trillion...

December 16, 2020
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16Dec

UK. BBC presses play on $4 billion longevity swap

BBC Pension Scheme, London, completed a £3 billion ($4 billion) longevity swap with Zurich and Canada Life Reinsurance. Read also Ireland. A new model for pensions required The deal provides the pension fund and sponsoring employer British Broadcasting Corp. "with more certainty over future funding costs, and improves the security of all members' benefits," a notice posted on the pension fund's website said. Read also UK. Canadian pension fund takes control of Trafford Centre The fund had £17.3 billion in assets...

December 16, 2020
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16Dec

US. Stock Market Gains Help Pension Funding Levels: Pension and Group Annuity Update

Corporate bond interest rates fell a little in November, but the stock market did well, and that helped make the finances of big U.S. corporate pension plans look better, according to Milliman Inc. Zorast Wadia and Charles Clark, analysts at the Seattle-based actuarial consulting firm, found that the 100 large corporate pension plans they track reported a $272 billion combined deficit in November on $1.98 trillion in pension benefits obligations, compared with a $284 billion deficit on $1.915 trillion...

December 16, 2020
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16Dec

UN organizations launch new initiative to improve the lives of older people

The United Nations General Assembly today declared 2021-2030 the Decade of Healthy Ageing. "Today's announcement of the UN Decade of Healthy Ageing sends a clear signal that it is only by working as one, within the United Nations system and with governments, civil society and the private sector, that we will be able to not only add years to life, but also life to years," said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization, in response to...

December 16, 2020
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15Dec

Divest or direct? Pension funds weigh their options in the climate crisis

n March 2017, Waltham Forest Council in London held £53.4m in investments in coal, oil and gas through its pension fund. Each of the 16,500 current and former workers who were members of the council’s pension scheme had more than £3,000 invested in fossil fuels. But this was about to change: the previous year, the council had become the first local authority in the UK to announce the divestment of fossil fuel holdings from its pension funds. Divestment can...

December 15, 2020
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15Dec

Chile’s Great Pension Raid

By Andrés Velasco Because the policies they produce are so ludicrous, populist cycles eventually crash against reality and come to an end. Sadly, for too many Chileans, the crash may come when they reach old age with no retirement savings. How should families pay for the costs of the pandemic? The conservative government’s finance minister proposes that the state should help.Thanks but no thanks, retort members of the country’s congress. Families can use their own accumulated pension savings, and the...

December 15, 2020
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15Dec

​Norway maps cost of extending pension coverage amid clash

The Norwegian government has opened a public consultation on the long-held plan to broaden mandatory occupational pension coverage by removing the lower earnings threshold at which employers make contributions, but worker and employer representations are in sharp disagreement over the terms. The Ministry of Finance published the report it received from the working group convened to come up with a plan on savings “from the first krone” in defined contribution mandatory occupational pension (obligatorisk tjenestepensjon, OTP) schemes. The...

December 15, 2020
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15Dec

Malta. Three in ten pensioners at risk of poverty

The proportion of pensioners at risk of living in poverty in Malta is increasing year on year, reaching 29.1 per cent of over 65s last year. And older women are more likely to teeter on the brink of poverty due to having to rely solely on their husband's pension. While all other age groups have seen a reduction in poverty since 2013, those aged over 65 have seen an increase. The latest details were revealed in an evaluation of...

December 15, 2020
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