June 2019

20Jun

Australia to Fix Flaws in World’s Fourth-Biggest Pension Pool

Australia’s third-largest pension fund is boosting its financial services division as a wave of baby boomers look to exit full-time work over the coming decades. The government will try again to stop the common practice of young workers automatically being charged for life insurance through their pension plans, Senator Jane Hume, the new assistant minister for superannuation, financial services and financial technology, told a Bloomberg conference Thursday. It will also work to ensure people are given better options for...

June 20, 2019
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20Jun

Why letting young people plunder their pensions to buy property is a terrible idea

Housing minister James Brokenshire floated recently the controversial idea that young people should be allowed to raid their pension pots to fund a home deposit as first-time buyers. He’s not the first to do so and he probably won’t be the last. Brokenshire argued in a Policy Exchange speech intended to influence the Conservative party’s leadership contest that this would help aspiring home buyers to make that all-important, first-time purchase in a difficult housing market, where prices relative to...

June 20, 2019
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20Jun

UK Workplace Pension Members Saved £90.4 Billion in 2018

Eligible UK employees contributing to workplace pensions saved a total of £90.4 billion ($114.6 billion) in 2018, a £7 billion increase over the amount saved the previous year, according to the UK’s Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). DWP data shows that annual total amounts saved increased for both public and private sector pensions compared with 2017, although this was far more pronounced among private sector employers whose savings rose £4.5 billion, while the amounts saved in public...

June 20, 2019
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19Jun

The World’s 10 Best National Retirement Systems

When it comes to the world's retirement systems, each is not necessarily created equal. Pension systems around the world, including social security systems and private sector arrangements, are now under more pressure than ever as more people enter retirement, according to a new report. While some systems are structured to withstand the pressure, others cannot. "The major causes of this demographic shift are declining birth rates and increasing longevity," stated the report, which was issued by Mercer, the global...

June 19, 2019
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19Jun

Brazil lawmakers open pension debate as Bolsonaro pushes private savings accounts

Brazil's congressional committee on pension reform began debating a revised bill on Tuesday, as President Jair Bolsonaro urged lawmakers to rethink their move to drop his plan to introduce a retirement system based on private savings accounts. The debate, which could extend into next week, comes ahead of a committee vote on the bill by June 26, according to lower house Speaker Rodrigo Maia, before it is considered for plenary approval. Committee Chairman Marcelo Ramos said he hopes for...

June 19, 2019
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19Jun

NYC Pensions to Expand Prison Investment Ban With Platinum Equity

New York City pension funds and Platinum Equity LLC are hammering out the details of a provision to let the funds opt out of future investments in the prison services industry, according to people familiar with the matter. The New York City Comptroller’s office is working to expand existing restrictions barring investment in private prison operators to now include companies providing services to correctional facilities, said the people, who asked not to be named because the discussions are private....

June 19, 2019
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19Jun

Providing social protection to domestic workers for inequality reduction and poverty eradication

Ms Sophoan is a domestic worker from rural poor family who is now living in Phnom Penh. Her earnings from this work represent the main income in her family with three children. However, these earnings stopped when she forced herself to take a break from physically demanding work due to unbearable pain at her third child 8 months pregnancy. What should have been a joyful time turned her very vulnerable as she was unable to pay for essential food,...

June 19, 2019
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18Jun

Nigeria: Going Beyond N9tr Asset With Pencom’s Micro-Pension Plan

A significant growth in the pension industry's asset size beyond the current value of N9.03 trillion is a new target. But it is riding on the expected success from the extension of the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) to the informal sector, while the flexibility of the operation is one of the incentives to encourage participation. The National Pension Commission (PenCom) would drive this new target with Micro Pension Plan (MPP), which allows the informal sector contributors under the CPS...

June 18, 2019
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18Jun

UK. Millions at risk of retiring on incomes below living wage

Pensions providers have been called on to do more to encourage people to save for their retirement as estimates suggest millions of people are at risk of retiring on incomes far less than the current “national living wage”. Since the introduction of automatic enrolment in 2012, which obliged employers to auto-enrol qualifying staff in workplace pensions, some 10 million people have started saving, many of whom would not have done so before. A minimum of 8% of pensionable earnings...

June 18, 2019
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18Jun

Brazil: The battle over pensions

The government’s difficulties are emerging clearly, with the weakness of its parliamentary group, stuck between the unpopularity of the reform and the clientelist pressures of the parties of the centre, unable to show their support for Guedes’ proposal. So, the visit of the minister ended in noisy confusion and an exchange of insults. The embarrassment of the minister representing the banking sector in the Commission led to a fall in capital markets. The next day was marked by the...

June 18, 2019
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