November 2020

UK. More Consumers Than Ever Are Managing Their Pensions Online

New figures from the UK’s leading online pension provider, PensionBee, show that consumers are increasingly managing their pensions online, following a 96% increase in PensionBee app users, as well as an 85% growth in the number of invested customers year on year. PensionBee, the UK’s leading online pension provider, has experienced an 85% increase in the number of invested customers over the past year. Invested customers, defined as having pension assets in a PensionBee plan, currently number around 60,000....

Nigeria. Retirees protest unpaid pensions

Pensioners in southwestern Nigeria stormed a government building Wednesday, protesting a lack of payments, local media reported. Angry protestors raised placards, in front of the Government Secretariat in the town of Abeere, adjacent to Osogbo, the capital of Osun state, according to local news website The Punch. The report did not elaborate on the reason for the state administration's alleged failure to pay pensions Nigeria, an oil-rich nation that has one of Africa's highest populations, has been suffering...

Pension transparency needs a benchmark

viaIn a first formal collaboration, Top1000funds.com and CEM Benchmarking have teamed up to develop the Global Pension Transparency Benchmark (GPTB). The GPTB establishes a new global benchmark that brings a focus to transparency in a bid to improve pension outcomes for members. Transparency, or lack of it around costs and other issues, has been a problem area for pension funds over many years, and in the industry there is room for improvement in this area. Transparency is a positive...

Australia. 12% superannuation hangs in the balance

The federal government will release the findings of its review into retirement incomes on Friday. Amongst other things, the review is believed to support a recent warning from Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe that the legislated increase in the superannuation guarantee (SG) will reduce wages and economic growth. The SG is slated to rise from 9.5% to 10% in mid-2021, but the government is set to delay a decision on proceeding with this increase until it hands down the...

French Senate passes social security draft budget, revives pensions polemic

Before the modifications in the Senate, the bill passed the National Assembly with 190 votes in favour, 106 votes against and 50 abstentions. As France deals with the ravages of the Covid-19 pandemic, senators voted to increase health provisions overall. Retirement age, again The Senate is dominated by a right-wing opposition and has re-introduced a proposal to extend the retirement age in order to balance the pension system. It recommends both pushing back the legal retirement age to 63...

Latin America’s leaders will have plenty of headaches

For latin america´s leaders 2021 will be about steering economic recovery while fending off a debt crisis and trying to persuade their citizens that democracy can still deliver results. What are the prospects around the region? With populations ravaged by covid-19 despite long lockdowns, many countries may have some degree of “herd immunity”. But the socio-economic consequences of the pandemic will linger: after economies contracted by 8% or so in 2020, Latin America will have some 40m “new poor”,...

South Africa. GEPF asset market value declines by 11.4% – annual report

Ryk Van Niekerk: The Government Employees Pension Fund, or GEPF, released its annual report yesterday, November 16, 2020. It was for their financial year to the end of March this year. Now the GEPF is a defined-benefit fund, which manages pensions and related benefits on behalf of government employees in South Africa. It was established in 1996, and is the largest pension fund in South Africa and one of the largest in the world. The fund’s asset value stood...

UK. PensionBee mulls float on stock exchange

Pension consolidator PensionBee is seeking to float on the London Stock Trade in a transfer which can see it valued at £300m or extra, based on experiences. In keeping with The Occasions, the digital consolidator is looking for bank advisers for the float and plans to make an appointment earlier than Christmas. Romi Savova, founder and chief govt of PensionBee, advised the paper that robust efficiency in current months had accelerated plans to show PensionBee right into a public...

Pensions Post-Covid

While the UK and much of Europe has re-entered lockdown, the prospect of a coronavirus vaccine and a new President in the White House have boosted investor confidence as well as the value of pension pots linked to the stock market. This year’s events have had a deep impact on household finances in the UK, but have they made permanent changes to retirement plans? The official data paints a mixed picture, and advisers say that while there has been...

Here Are the World’s Biggest Asset Owners

The top 100 asset owners controlled $20.1 trillion in global assets at the end of 2019 — a 6 percent jump from the year before, according to a new annual ranking. In its annual Top 100 Asset Owners study, published Monday, consultant Willis Towers Watson’s Thinking Ahead Institute reported that by itself, Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund weighs in at nearly $1.6 trillion in assets. That fund, the government pension system of Norway, and China’s sovereign wealth fund...