September 2020

25Sep

UK. Scam warning signs found in half of post-Lockdown pension transfers

According to XPS, the pensions consultancy firm, in July and August of this year 51% of pension transfers, equating to twenty five million pounds in pension savings, were flagged as at risk of a pension scam. The number of transfers showing at least one red flag has dramatically increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2016, only 13% of pensions’ transfers triggered a red flag. This figure rose to 33% at the end of June 2020 and then jumped considerably...

September 25, 2020
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25Sep

Greece. Funded pension plan for more workers

The Labor and Social Security Ministry is examining the idea of granting younger workers – with few years of labor in the current social security system – the option of choosing to join the new funded auxiliary pension system, the very system that new entrants in the labor market must now enter by law. The same option, per the proposals examined at the General Secretariat for Social Security, will also be offered to any groups of workers who have...

September 25, 2020
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24Sep

US. Pension Buyouts a Relative Bargain, Says Mercer

Now may be a good time for companies looking to de-risk their defined benefit (DB) pension plans to consider an annuity buyout, according to new data from consulting firm Mercer, which shows a hypothetical retiree buy-out transaction costs an estimated 97.7% of a plan’s accounting obligations. Mercer said the new data is a result of recent tweaking the company made to its US Pension Buyout Index, which tracks the relationship between the accounting liability for a defined benefit plan...

September 24, 2020
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24Sep

Ghana: Press highlights plight of pensioners, removal of 7,000 ‘ghost’ names from govt’s payroll

The call on the government to take liability for the shortage in the payment of lump sums to pensioners and the removal of 7,000 ‘ghost’ names from the government’s payroll are some of the trending stories in the Ghanaian press on Wednesday. The Graphic reports that the Trades Union Congress (TUC) has called on the government to take liability for the shortage in the payment of lump sums to pensioners who started retiring from this year under the new...

September 24, 2020
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24Sep

UK. Aon warns longevity risk has not gone away with COVID-19 deaths

Insurance and reinsurance broker and risk advisory Aon has warned today that re/insurers and pension funds need to avoid over-reacting to how inclusion of COVID-19 deaths changes recognised mortality models, saying that “longevity risk has not gone away.” Once excess deaths are added into the mortality models for the United Kingdom it may produce an unrealistic fall in life expectancy, Aon warns. Insurance and reinsurance companies, as well as pension schemes and funds, factor life expectancy into their calculations...

September 24, 2020
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24Sep

It’s too early to panic over plans for South African pensions: asset managers

The topic of South African pensions was raised again this week after the Democratic Alliance (DA) called for comment on its proposed Private Member’s Bill to amend the Pension Funds Act. The party wants to amend the Act to enable pension fund members to access a percentage of their pension fund before retirement as a guarantee for a loan. This will help alleviate financial pressure during an emergency such as the coronavirus pandemic or any other emergency similar to...

September 24, 2020
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24Sep

Romania MPs Undermine Austerity Drive With Huge Pension Hike

Romania’s parliament on Tuesday dealt a major blow to the centre-right government’s push to keep the public finances in order by amending the budget to raise pensions by a whopping 40 per cent, instead of 14 per cent, as the original legislation envisioned. Increasing pensions by 40 per cent is an old promise of the opposition Social Democratic Party, PSD, which has the largest number of seats in parliament and tabled the amendment. Besides the PSD, which made...

September 24, 2020
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23Sep

EU financial regulators asses risks to the financial sector after the outbreak of COVID-19 and call for enhanced cooperation

The impact of the crisis on EU banks’ asset quality is a key concern as significant uncertainty about the timing and size of a recovery persists. The ESAs see a risk of decoupling of financial market performance from the underlying economic activity, and , a prolonged lower for longer interest rate environment which is expected to weigh on the profitability and solvency of financial institutions, as well as contributing to the build-up of valuation risks. Directly following the COVID-19...

September 23, 2020
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23Sep

UK. Pension funds should allocate towards infrastructure and growth assets as government bonds now provide “return-free risk”, says Baroness Altmann

Former pensions minister and peer of the House of Lords, Baroness Ros Altmann is a well-known economist and campaigner. Her work has included leading a lobby that secured millions of pounds in compensation for the retirees of the UK’s former nationalised steel industry, who faced losing their entire state pensions. Read also UK. Platform giants join firms in pension switching call Speaking at the World Pensions Council’s virtual conference, the G7 Pensions Investment Summit, Altmann said that pension funds must...

September 23, 2020
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23Sep

JPMorgan-backed Brazil fintech plans to expand in U.S., Mexico

FitBank Pagamentos Eletronicos SA, a Brazilian fintech backed by JPMorgan Chase, plans to open a U.S. office in the first half of 2021. The payment-services firm, which has more than 100 clients in Brazil, is also expecting to start operations in Mexico, Peru and Colombia sometime next year, according to Chief Executive Otavio Farah. Payment technology “doesn’t vary much from nation to nation,” Farah said in a virtual interview from FitBank’s office in Sao Paulo. “We can really go...

September 23, 2020
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