March 2020

06Mar

UK. PLSA Calls for Pensions to Hold Companies Accountable for Climate Change

In its updated annual stewardship and voting guide, the UK’s Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA), whose members are responsible for approximately £1 trillion ($1.28 trillion) in pension assets, said plan investors need to hold the directors of the companies they invest in accountable for the way they manage climate change risks. The guidelines are intended to be a resource to provide pension trustees with practical guidance when considering how to exercise their votes at annual general meetings. The...

March 6, 2020
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06Mar

DC Plan Assets Funneling Into Target Date Funds

Target-date funds have substantially grown in popularity within employer-sponsored defined contribution retirement plans, according to a survey released Wednesday by NEPC, an independent investment consulting firm. As of the end of 2019, 39% of assets in defined contribution plans were in target date funds while only 22% were in 2010. The number of plans offering target date fund investment options has remained steady at 96% of plans, said the “Defined Contribution Plan & Fee Survey” by Boston-based NEPC. Ross...

March 6, 2020
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06Mar

Diving Into Three of Africa’s Emerging Fintech Economies

For many, Africa represents the final frontier of untapped economic growth. Across its diverse countries, growth rates continue to outpace those achieved in long-developed economies. Collectively, growth) on the continent stabilized at 3.4% in 2019, and is forecast to reach 3.9% in 2020 and 4.1% in 2021. While these numbers remain below historical highs, fundamentals continue to improve as economies shift from local consumption to external investments. Of the 30 fastest growing cities in the world, 21 are in...

March 6, 2020
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06Mar

BBC coronavirus UK warning: Pensioners face ‘rapid increase’ in risk of death from illness

Sir Patrick Vallance outlined that the mortality rate of COVID-19 cases for people over the age of 80 is around eight percent, he then contrasted this with the mortality rate for children under which is "essentially zero". The Government chief scientific adviser stated that this was due to the likelihood of people over the age of 80 to have co-existing illnesses in comparison to any other demographic. Sir Patrick Vallance said: "Older people are vulnerable to all sorts of...

March 6, 2020
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05Mar

East African bloc plans harmonized pension regulation to boost labor mobility

The East African Community (EAC) member states plan to harmonize their pension regulations in order to boost labor mobility across the bloc, an official said on Tuesday. Nzomo Mutuku, CEO of Kenya's Retirement Benefits Authority (RBA), told journalists in Nairobi that the EAC Pension Policy, which was approved by the EAC council of ministers, will provide a roadmap to standardize pension rules. EAC member states include Burundi, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, and South Sudan. The retirement benefits regulator said...

March 5, 2020
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05Mar

US. Fragile Retirement Funds Tested by Market Volatility, Bond Yields

The list of institutions challenged by the impact of the coronavirus now includes America’s pension funds. State and local government retirement systems face the difficult task of trying to plug funding gaps while protecting against investment losses. The past two weeks of falling bond yields and heightened stock-market volatility have made that job even more complicated. Pension funds have for years been piling into stocks to try to reduce shortfalls after a decadeslong slide in bond yields slashed the...

March 5, 2020
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05Mar

Gender pay gap in Europe: facts and figures

This year marks 25 years since the adoption of the UN’s Beijing Declaration aimed at the advancement of women around the globe, the 10th anniversary of UN Women - dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women - and five years since the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals, one of which is gender equality. So where do we stand? Progress has been made, but inequality between men and women persists, including on the labour market. On average,...

March 5, 2020
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05Mar

UK. Record Numbers Saving into Workplace Pensions

More than three-quarters of British employees are now members of a workplace pension scheme, according to new figures from the Office for National Statistics. And for the first time, occupational defined contribution (DC) pensions have overtaken all other types of pension, including defined benefit (DB) or final salary schemes. The proportion of employees in a workplace pension hit 77%, the highest since comparable records began in 1997 – it marks a huge advance on the 47% in these schemes...

March 5, 2020
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04Mar

Global Economic Policymakers Scramble as Coronavirus Threatens Growth

Global policymakers moved to ease public anxiety over the coming economic hit from the coronavirus on Monday, as analysts warned of a severe slowdown in growth and a possible recession if the virus continued to spread. Finance ministers and central bankers from the world’s advanced economies said the Group of 7 would hold an emergency call on Tuesday morning to discuss economic responses to the outbreak. The World Bank and International Monetary Fund signaled they were also ready to...

March 4, 2020
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04Mar

South Africa. Pension funds shouldn’t be ‘fearful’ of Eskom – Ramaphosa

President Cyril Ramaphosa has given the strongest indication yet that the savings of pension funds will be used to bail out Eskom’s debt obligations. Briefing the South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) in Cape Town, Ramaphosa said South Africans "weren’t that good" at saving money and that pension funds were the main sources of money to save Eskom. The national power utility has to repay over R450bn in debt. "You have to go to the source of investments. Where...

March 4, 2020
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