February 2022
10Feb

Should Ghana raise compulsory retirement age to 65?

Authorities in Ghana are calling for a national dialogue for a review of the country’s pension regulation to increase compulsory retirement age from 60 to 65. Would this move worsen the employment situation or help the state meet its retirement obligations? Since 1992, the compulsory retirement age in Ghana has been pegged at 60. At the time, the average life expectancy was 57.4 years. 30 years down the line, life expectancy has increased to 64.4 years and the compulsory retirement...

February 10, 2022
News, Slider, ,
Read more...
10Feb

Kenya. Pension-backed mortgages boost to affordable housing

For more than a decade, Kenyans have had the leeway to use up to 60 percent of their accrued retirement benefits as a guarantee for mortgage loans. However, a study by the Retirement Benefits Authority (RBA) shows that less than 0.1 percent of members of retirement benefits schemes have taken advantage of the provision. In a bid to further catalyse individuals to utilise their pension savings towards homeownership, the Retirement Benefits (Mortgage Loans) - (Amendment) Regulations was enacted in 2020 allowing...

February 10, 2022
News, Slider, ,
Read more...
10Feb

Jamaica. Tourism pension fund likely to grow faster than traditional funds – Goffe

The Ministry of Tourism (MOT) indicates that, as at December 31, 2021, the value of assets managed by Sagicor Life Jamaica on behalf of the Tourism Workers Pension Scheme was approximately $506 million. At the launch of the scheme, Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett said he expected the fund to grow to $100 billion by 2023 and to reach $1 trillion in 10 years. The management of the assets of the scheme falls under Sagicor's managed pension portfolios which as at...

February 10, 2022
News, Slider, ,
Read more...
09Feb

US. Pension risk transfer market posts record-breaking 2021

The U.S. pension risk transfer market had a record-breaking year in 2021, with an estimated total volume of between $38 billion and $40 billion, according to a report from Legal & General Group. Read also US. New York’s public pension fund to divest from 21 companies over transition risk In the insurer's latest Pension Risk Transfer Monitor, issued Tuesday , the U.S. PRT market's volume for the year well exceeded the total of $27 billion for 2020, and also exceeded the...

February 9, 2022
News, Slider, ,
Read more...
09Feb

UK. Climate change a ‘fundamental risk’ to scheme longevity

Climate change is severely impacting on the covenants of a range of employers sponsoring UK defined benefit (DB) schemes, the Employer Covenant Practitioners Association (ECPA) says. In a paper published today (8 February), the ECPA said climate change is "progressively impacting" the covenant of many sponsors, from impacting upon cashflows to representing a "fundamental risk" to scheme longevity. It argues that DB schemes should consider the impacts of climate change through sectoral analysis, including regulation and technological evolution, to best consider...

February 9, 2022
News, Slider, , ,
Read more...
09Feb

India’s APY scheme sees gradual increase in membership

The number of subscribers under the government-administered pension scheme, the Atal Pension Yojana (APY), has exceeded 7.1m as of 24 January this year, Parliament has been told. “As per information received from PFRDA, 7,106,743 subscribers have been enrolled under APY up to 24 January 2022, during the financial year 2021-22,” Minister of State for Finance Bhagwat Karad said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of Parliament. In FY20 (the financial year ended 31 March 2020), there...

February 9, 2022
News, Slider, ,
Read more...
09Feb

Ghana. Campaign to register private, informal sector workers to roll out in April – SSNIT

Pension schemes are for all workers-SSNIT The Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) has revealed that it will commence a sensitization campaign in April to encourage informal and private sector workers to patronize the pension scheme. Read also Tunji Andrews is Building Awabah, a Pension Platform for Nigeria´s Informal Sector Acting Public Affairs Manager of SSNIT, Charles Akwei Garshong, speaking on JoyNews’ The Law, on Sunday said the campaign will specifically target celebrities and all those in the informal sector, to enlighten...

February 9, 2022
News, Slider, ,
Read more...
08Feb

Kenya. Pension returns up five percentage points on stocks gains

Pension fund returns rose by five percentage points in 2021 on improved performance of equities and offshore investments, signalling higher interest earnings for savers. Pension fund administrator Zamara said that in 2021, the median return for schemes stood at 12.4 percent compared to 7.3 percent in 2020. The higher returns were mainly driven by a rebound in equities, where returns stood at 18.4 percent in the year compared to a decline of 10.4 percent in 2020. This asset class accounts for...

February 8, 2022
News, Slider, ,
Read more...
08Feb

Can aging population trends tame inflation?

By Larry Berman The Economist, one of my favourite weekly reads (or listens these days with audio features), highlights a recent paper examining the effects of demographic change on saving, Etienne Gagnon, Benjamin Johannsen and David López-Salido of the Federal Reserve Board suggest that aging in America may account for about one percentage point of the drop in interest rates since the 1980s. Other research has suggested it could be as much as three per cent. One thing is fact,...

February 8, 2022
News, Op-Ed, Slider, ,
Read more...
08Feb

AstraZeneca moves to terminate U.S. pension plan

AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP, Wilmington, Del., has announced plans to terminate its U.S. defined benefit plan. The company informed participants in its AstraZeneca Defined Benefit Plan on Jan. 25 of its intention to terminate the plan, according to a statement emailed by AstraZeneca's media relations team. The termination "involves transferring the responsibility for payments, recordkeeping and asset management to a qualified, carefully selected insurance company with expertise in the long-term management of pension benefits," according to the statement. The U.S. defined benefit plan...

February 8, 2022
News, Slider, ,
Read more...