June 2020

Publication of EIOPA’s Annual Report 2019

Today, the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) published its 2019 Annual Report, setting out its activities and achievements of the past year. Throughout the course of the year, EIOPA continued to play an essential role in the supervision of insurance and pensions in Europe, working closely with national supervisory authorities, European institutions and other stakeholders to fulfil its strategic objectives set out in its annual work programme. EIOPA significantly strengthened its work on conduct of business supervision. EIOPA...

Top US pension fund aims to juice returns via $80bn leverage plan

Calpers is to move deeper into private equity and private debt by adopting a bold leverage strategy that the $395bn Californian public sector pension fund believes will help it achieve its ambitious 7 per cent rate of return. In a presentation to the Calpers board, Ben Meng, chief investment officer, said the giant fund would take on additional leverage via borrowings and financial instruments such as equity futures. Leverage could be as high as 20 per cent of the...

Pension giant and BNP Paribas AM unite for climate lobbying effort

AP7, BNP Paribas Asset Management and the Church of England Pensions Board have partnered with specialist advisory firm Chronos Sustainability to develop a framework to guide responsible corporate climate change lobbying The Swedish pension fund, French asset manager and English group have teamed up to better assess whether corporate lobbying is aligned with climate change goals, as set out in the Paris Agreement. The project will develop on existing efforts to create a credible and systematic means of measuring...

IBM Trials Blockchain Platform For Primary Teachers ’ Pensions in Bangladesh

IBM has started an initiative to create a distributed ledger technology (DLT) based framework that will form the back bone of digital pension program for Bangladeshi primary school teachers. The PoC (Proof-of-Concept) consists of a permissioned network of teachers and other partakers backed by the IBM Blockchain Platform, with pension data loaded on the blockchain to guarantee unalterable data keeping and offer safety guarantees to teachers partaking in GBB (Grameen Bank of Bangladesh) government supervising IT policy in the...

Multinational Firms Aim to Standardize Their Retirement Plans

More multinational companies are moving to standardize the retirement plans they offer across countries, aiming to level the playing field for employees and boost efficiency and compliance. A 2018 study by the American Benefits Institute and international-benefits consultant Aon found that almost three-quarters of the more than 250 multinational companies surveyed had at least some level of centralization in their employee-benefit programs, compared with just 40% in 2015. Some 83% said they expect to be somewhat centralized. Read more...

World’s Worst Stock Market Risks More Pain From Pension Selling

The world’s worst-performing stock market this year is at risk of an even steeper drop from a proposal to let Colombians tap pension savings during the coronavirus crisis. The government has held talks with private pension funds regarding an “important proposal” that would allow workers to draw down their retirement accounts, Finance Minister Alberto Carrasquilla told lawmakers Wednesday. The government has made “advances” on the issue, though hasn’t reached a decision, Carrasquilla said. The plan would likely need congressional...

Kenya. Pensions holdings in bonds up Sh92 billion

Pension funds have raised holdings of government debt by Sh92 billion since the beginning of the year, turning to the securities for assured yields at a time equities and property have taken a beating from the pandemic. The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) data shows the funds now account for 29.46 per cent of government domestic debt, which at the end of May stood at Sh3.155 trillion. This translates to holdings worth Sh929.7 billion for the pension funds. At...

9.5 Million Americans Are Raiding Retirement Accounts Amid Covid-19

The Covid-19 pandemic has crippled economies all around the world. From healthcare disasters to black swan financial events, it has been quite some time since the future has seemed so bleak. According to a story originally published by CNBC, this widespread financial strife has caused more than one in four Americans to raid their retirement savings. Read also US. The Reason COVID-19 Might Destroy 22% of Workers’ Retirement Although withdrawing from retirement plans during a financial emergency may seem like...

Virus Exposes ‘Systemic Risk’ in Australia Pensions Industry

The coronavirus crisis has exposed structural weaknesses in Australia’s retirement savings system and shown the urgent need for the pensions industry to consolidate, according to the government. Senator Jane Hume, the assistant minister for superannuation and financial services, said the pandemic had highlighted the heavy concentration of some funds, whose membership is drawn from industries such as tourism, retail or hospitality. That left them vulnerable to the widespread layoffs impacting those sectors. “It’s a systemic risk and it’s been...

Colombia may allow partial withdrawals from pensions during crisis

Colombia’s government could allow people to make partial withdrawals from their pension funds during the economic crisis caused by measures to halt the spread of coronavirus, finance minister Alberto Carrasquilla said on Wednesday. Read also World’s Worst Stock Market Risks More Pain From Pension Selling As of the end of March, pension funds in the country held some 281 trillion pesos ($77.13 billion) in compulsory and voluntary pensions, according to industry association Asofondos. Read also Supreme Court Clears Bankruptcy Restructuring...