August 2019

02Aug

World’s Biggest Pension Fund Adds $2.4 Billion

The world’s biggest pension fund posted its second straight quarterly gain as overseas stocks and bonds generated returns even as most major currencies depreciated against the yen. Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund returned 0.2%, or 257 billion yen ($2.4 billion), in the three months ended June 30, with assets totaling 159.2 trillion yen, it said Friday in Tokyo. Overseas stocks were the fund’s best performing investment, returning 1.3%, followed by overseas debt and domestic bonds. Its Japanese stocks lost...

August 2, 2019
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02Aug

The Fracking Industry Is in Debt. Retirement Funds Are Helping Bail It Out.

Ayear ago, Chesapeake Energy, at one time the nation’s largest natural gas producer, announced it was selling off its Ohio Utica shale drilling rights in a $2 billion deal with a little-known private company based in Houston, Texas, Encino Acquisition Partners. For Chesapeake, the deal offered a way to pay off some of its debts, incurred as its former CEO, “Shale King” Aubrey McClendon, led Chesapeake on a disastrous shale drilling spree. Shares of Chesapeake Energy, which in the...

August 2, 2019
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02Aug

US. DOL Small Business Retirement Plan Rule Not The Cure-All That’s Needed

In a nod to the small business community, the Department of Labor issued a final rule earlier this week that may nudge more employers to offer joint retirement plans—MEPs—but it’s not all that employers were hoping for. “This is NOT the MEPs that everyone has been so excited about,” says Nevin Adams, chief of marketing for the American Retirement Association via email. The DOL rule, effective September 30, allows companies in different industries to band together to create a...

August 2, 2019
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01Aug

A sustainability taxonomy for investors

On June 18, 2019 the EU expert group for sustainable finance (TEG) published a proposal for a European definition of environmentally sustainable activities. The taxonomy is best compared to a green encyclopedia for financial market participants. An encyclopedia that provides guidance to investors that are looking to finance the transition to an economy in line with the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement. The TEG’s proposal is a major step towards a European definition of sustainable economic activities....

August 1, 2019
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01Aug

Greece. Government to introduce ceiling to stop paying huge pensions

The Labor Ministry is about to introduce a ceiling on the monthly amount of pensions, to apply retroactively, in order to plug the loophole in the Katrougalos law that allowed for some very large pensions, which in certain cases exceeded 20,000 euros a month. Ministry sources say that the retroactive application means that any pensioners who received very high benefits will now have to return the amount over the ceiling to be set. They add that they will not...

August 1, 2019
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01Aug

Kenya. 3 Fintech firms admitted into CMA regulatory sandbox

Capital Markets Authority (CMA) has admitted three fintech firms into its regulatory sandbox, allowing them to live test innovative solutions with the capacity to deepen and enhance the efficiency of capital markets. The firms include Innova Limited, Pezesha Africa Limited and a third firm which remains anonymous. Innova will test its cloud-based data analytics platform designed for use by Investors, Fund Managers, Custodian Banks, Actuaries, Pension Administrators and Regulators. Pezesha will test an internet-based crowd-funding platform through which investors...

August 1, 2019
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01Aug

US. Tennessee pension fund investments in marijuana company generates smoke

After discovering retirement plan invested in medical cannabis firm, pot-wary Tennessee to sell stock In a Republican-led state where many top officials, including Gov. Bill Lee, oppose legalizing even medical marijuana, Tennessee's massive $52 billion retirement plan holds a $720,000 investment in the nation's blazing-hot pot industry. The Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System's passively invested small-company stock fund, based on Standard and Poor's S&P Smallcap 600 index, owns 7,009 shares in San Diego-based Innovative Industrial Properties Inc. A real estate...

August 1, 2019
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01Aug

MetLife, Prudential Report Big Profit Gains

The nation’s two biggest life insurers posted sharply higher net income for the second quarter. MetLife Inc. nearly doubled its second-quarter profit, helped by improved investment results and derivative gains on a financial hedging program. At rival Prudential Financial Inc., net income rose to $708 million from $197 million a year ago. The year-earlier results were depressed by a net charge of $1.23 billion, primarily for bolstering Prudential’s reserves for long-term-care insurance policies in a product line it discontinued......

August 1, 2019
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July 2019

31Jul

China to further raise pension benefits for retired soldiers

China will further increase pension and living subsidies for disabled veterans, Red Army veterans and families of martyrs starting Aug. 1, China's Army Day. Pension allowances for disabled soldiers, police officers and militia members, as well as families of martyrs and deceased soldiers, will be increased by 10 percent from last year, according to a statement jointly issued by the Ministry of Veterans Affairs and the Ministry of Finance. After the adjustment, yearly pension allowances for veterans disabled in...

July 31, 2019
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31Jul

US. Maybe Insurers Could Start Multiple-Employer Retirement Plans: DOL

The Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) has given life insurers, and other financial services companies, an early Christmas present: an expression of interest in the idea of letting financial institutions start multiple-employer retirement plans. EBSA has just helped its parent, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), complete work on a set of final regulations that encourage small employers to offer association retirement plans — by treating small employers that join a multiple-employer plan (MEP) as one big employer, for...

July 31, 2019
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