May 2018

10May

UK. TPR launches their corporate plan for regulating pensions

The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has published its corporate plan setting out how it is taking a clearer, quicker and tougher approach to driving up standards in the pensions sector. The corporate plan for 2018 – 2021 outlines how TPR will focus on key areas of activity, including: driving up standards of trusteeship and stewardship across all pension schemes authorising master trust schemes ensuring employers meet their automatic enrolment duties ensuring defined benefit (DB) schemes are effectively regulated working with government to implement the proposals set...

May 10, 2018
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09May

Canada. B.C. finance minister defends public pension investments in Kinder Morgan

B.C.’s finance minister says there’s nothing hypocritical about the province’s public sector pensions investing in Kinder Morgan while the government fights the company’s Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. B.C. public sector pensions –including those of the public service, B.C. teachers and BC Hydro employees — are administered by a Crown corporation called the BC Investment (BCI) Corporation. It has 1.12 million Kinder Morgan shares, and has added some 21,000 in recent months. The investment is worth about $18 million of the $135.5...

May 9, 2018
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09May

Canadian pension funds invest $25 billion in Asia

Canada’s largest pension funds are fixing their gaze on Asia Pacific to fund the beachfront retirement dreams of today’s workers, says a new report. The report, released by the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada (APFC), found that between 2003 and 2017, Canadian pension funds invested $25 billion in the region, with the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board and the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec is the top three investors. Read More: Asian Pacific Post

May 9, 2018
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09May

US. MetLife to provide pension benefits to 41,000 FedEx retirees through annuity

US insurer MetLife Inc (MET.N) has entered into an agreement to provide pension benefits for about 41,000 FedEx Corp (FDX.N) retirees and beneficiaries through an annuity, the two companies said on Tuesday. MetLife and FedEx expect to close the deal, which includes about $6 billion in pension obligations, on May 10, they said. The deal is the first “jumbo-sized” U.S. transfer of pension obligations to an insurer, measured by premium, since 2013, wrote Wells Fargo Securities LLC analyst Sean Dargan in...

May 9, 2018
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08May

Radical ideas for rebalancing Britain’s baby boomers and millennials

The Resolution Foundation is not short of ambition. It believes its new report, A New Generational Contract, can reframe the political debate, shifting it away from free-market, small state concerns towards the new anxieties of voters. The report underlines how funding for the NHS has become a priority for every generation of voters, while even the older, affluent middle classes are worried that their children will never be able to buy a home. David Willetts, the former Conservative cabinet minister who...

May 8, 2018
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08May

AfDB Seeks to Plug Africa $170 Billion Infrastructure Needs

The African Development Bank seeks investments from global pensions and commercial financiers to help fund the continent’s infrastructure gap of as much as $170 billion a year. The Abidjan-based lender is launching its Africa Investment Forum in Johannesburg on Tuesday. The forum will host its first meeting in November in South Africa’s commercial hub and will have “no speeches,” but rather present bankable projects to investors, according to AfDB President Akinwumi Adesina. The forum is “very unique,” Adesina said in an...

May 8, 2018
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08May

US. Central States Pension Fund Could Be Insolvent by 2025

The Central States Pension Fund faces insolvency by 2025, and only congressional action can save it, the fund’s executive director says. Thomas Nyhan, who leads the $15.1 billion fund, told its 400,000 members during a conference call late Wednesday night to take up the issue. “Without your voice, there will be no legislation, and the fund will become insolvent,” Nyhan said on the call, urging beneficiaries to tell lawmakers the impact the fund’s insolvency would have on their lives. Read More: Chief Investment...

May 8, 2018
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07May

Australia. Pensioners call for budget boost to ‘inadequate’ retirement funds

Trevor Robey and Dennice Bargh are a recently retired couple from Sydney's western suburbs. Mr Robey worked as an administrator for a private bus company, while Ms Bargh worked as a court officer for the past 17 years. They retired only a year ago, but already they believe they're struggling to make ends meet. "I don't believe that the pension is adequate enough, truly, I don't," Ms Bargh said. The basic single pension rate is $862.20 a fortnight for a single person and...

May 7, 2018
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07May

Ghana. Government must come out with alternative retirement plan – Prof. Bokpin

Economist and Head of Finance Department at the University of Ghana Business School, Professor Godfred Bokpin has warned of future hardships for Ghanaians if the country fails to implement alternative retirement plans. This, he believes is because the current law only provides minimum allowance for person’s who retire under the law. His comments come on the back of a recent altercation between some pensioners and the Ministry of Finance over delays in the release of their pensions for the month of...

May 7, 2018
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07May

UK. Growth in self-employment risks undermining the state pension

The rising popularity of self-employment risks undermining the sustainability of Britain’s state pension as national insurance contributions fall, new research has found. For every one million people moving from being employed to being self-employed, £2.8bn is lost annually from national insurance contributions, which fund the state pension, according to a report from pensions firm Aegon. Under reforms to the pensions system in 2016, self-employed people now receive the same state pension as employees. However, the rules about national insurance contributions were...

May 7, 2018
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