September 2018

26Sep

Qatar pension fund investments touch QR90bn

Qatar’s Pension Fund investments have reached QR90bn. The Fund recorded a seven percent growth in total revenues in 2017 compared to the previous year, to the General Retirement and Social Insurance Authority (GRSIA) noted in its annual report for the year 2017. In an introductory note to the annual report, Minister of Finance H E Ali Shareef Al Emadi said that the state of Qatar is proceeding with the development of investment policies to achieve the highest growth rates of...

September 26, 2018
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25Sep

UK. Mercer claims CMA report used “flawed data”

Mercer has accused the Competition and Markets Authority of using incorrect data and unrepresentative samples in its recent Investment Consultants Market Investigation. This probe look at consultants offering investment and fiduciary management services to the £1.6tn pension fund industry. But Mercer’s UK chief executive Fiona Dunsire claims the errors in this data analysis “cast doubt on the credibility of key aspects” of the CMA’s provisional decision report, published in the July this year. Read more @corporate adviser Read the CMA's provisonal report here

September 25, 2018
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25Sep

Canada. Non-profit workers offered chance to join Ontario public sector pension plan

As many as one million Ontarians who work for registered charities and non-profit organizations will be eligible to join the provincial government pension plan under an agreement being announced Monday. The Ontario Nonprofit Network, which advocates on behalf of the province’s 58,000 charities and non-profits, is recommending OPTrust as the sector’s first defined-benefit pension provider. The new OPTrust Select plan will be available to every registered charity and non-profit in Ontario, whether it has one employee or hundreds, said the network’s...

September 25, 2018
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25Sep

As Algerian army retirees protest, NGO urges restraint

An Algerian rights group on Monday called for dialogue to resolve ongoing protests by retired military personnel demanding higher pensions. In a statement, the League for the Defense of Human Rights (LADDH), a prominent Algerian NGO, said that National Gendarmerie forces on Sunday had forcibly dispersed a protest by thousands of army retirees in the Haouch al-Makhfi district of capital Algiers. According to the LADDH, the dispersal led to clashes between protesters and gendarmerie forces, leaving an undetermined number of people...

September 25, 2018
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25Sep

UK. Pensions regulator fines more than triple in a year

The value of fines issued by The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has more than tripled in a year, reaching £42m in 2017/18. This value, which is made up of fixed and escalating penalty notices, compares to £12.6m in the previous year, according to information published by TPR. A fixed penalty notice of £400 is issued to an employer for failure to comply with a statutory notice or some specific employer duties. An escalating penalty notice varies between £50 and £10,000 a day depending...

September 25, 2018
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25Sep

Russia. Kremlin loses regional votes amid anger over pension reform

Russia's ruling party suffered two rare defeats in regional elections this weekend as its candidates lost to nationalists amid widespread discontent over a pension reform backed by President Vladimir Putin. A second round of governorship elections was held in two key regions Sunday, after support for the pro-Kremlin United Russia party saw its strongest decline in a decade during the first round on September 9. Vladimir Sipyagin, of the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), won 57 percent of the...

September 25, 2018
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24Sep

UK. Small firms exposed to pension fund risks, warns Goldman Sachs

The funding positions of company pension pots improved last year but smaller firms are not managing their risk exposures well, according to Goldman Sachs. The US investment bank’s annual survey of FTSE 350 pension schemes found many were “in the best position they have been in for a long time” after funding levels improved. However, it cautioned smaller schemes demonstrated more volatile funding outcomes due to “a less robust” approach to risk management. Goldman Sachs found the very smallest schemes were...

September 24, 2018
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24Sep

Russia: 3.000 demonstrators in Moscow against the reform of retirement pensions

Three thousand or so people marched Saturday in Moscow against the unpopular project of the government to increase the age of retirement, which causes a slingshot unusual in Russia. Parade participants on a large avenue in the centre of the Russian capital, waving placards bearing the image of members of the ruling party, United Russia, of which Prime minister Dmitry Medvedev, accompanied by slogans such as “Enemy of the people” or “Shame”. “About 3,000 people have taken part” in the protest,...

September 24, 2018
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24Sep

APG’s sustainable investments grow €2.2bn

Dutch pension provider APG has seen its investments in sustainable real estate and infrastructure grow €1.3bn and €900m in one year. According to APG, which manages €482bn in pension assets, the growth is proof sustainable investments yield long-term returns with the sustainable real estate portfolio grew to €21.7bn and infrastructure to €2.3bn. This also contributes to the objectives of pension scheme APB, APG’s largest client, who invested €58bn in business that helps meet United Nation’s sustainable development goals by 2020. APG uses...

September 24, 2018
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24Sep

Ageing population ‘will push up prices’, warns Deutsche Bank

Rising prices could be here to stay as the ageing population across much of the world pushes them up, analysts at Deutsche Bank have warned. A shrinking working-age population combined with demand from pensioners risks pushing up the cost of production, setting the scene for decades of pressure on living standards. Governments are likely to succumb to the temptation to inflate away debts, as that smaller workforce will otherwise struggle to pay off the mountains of borrowing being built up now. “While...

September 24, 2018
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