February 2018

21Feb

Principal Completes the Purchase of MetLife Afore in Mexico

Today, Principal Financial Group® (“Principal”) announced it has completed its acquisition of MetLife Afore, S.A. de C.V. (“MetLife Afore”), MetLife, Inc.’s pension fund management business in Mexico, attaining full regulatory approval for the deal. The purchase and integration will position its Principal Afore, S.A. de C.V. (“Principal Afore”) as the fifth largest Afore in Mexico with more than 7 percent market share*. “Mexico is a growing and important market for Principal,” said Luis Valdes, president of Principal International, the global...

February 21, 2018
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21Feb

Temer’s failure on Brazil pension reform leaves tricky task to successor

President Michel Temer’s decision to throw in the towel on reforming Brazil’s loss-making pension system leaves the unpopular measure as a campaign issue for October’s elections and a major headache for his successor. Monday’s announcement that Temer was abandoning an overhaul of the social security system - billed as the centerpiece of his efforts at fiscal reform - sparked immediate concern from credit rating agencies that Latin America’s largest economy was failing to put its financial house in order. Brazil’s generous...

February 21, 2018
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20Feb

UK. Britain’s pensions regulator ignored trustee requests on Carillion: lawmakers

Britain’s pensions regulator twice ignored requests from trustees of collapsed outsourcing firm Carillion (CLLN.L) to force the company to plug its pension deficit, lawmakers said on Tuesday. The Pensions Regulator has come under fire for taking insufficient steps to protect pension scheme members of troubled companies, following the collapse of department store chain BHS in 2016. Carillion collapsed on Jan. 15, with only 29 million pounds ($41 million) of cash left. It had pension liabilities of around 2.5 billion pounds, two...

February 20, 2018
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20Feb

UK. What Were the Outcomes of the Work and Pensions Committee Report?

“The outcome of the report comes as no real surprise. It concluded that the process for members to decide whether to move to the new British Steel Pension Scheme (BSPS2) was hurried and the communication far too complex with not enough bespoke information. These factors contributed to many members transferring out of the scheme to a defined contribution arrangement, which was not in their best interest. “Nearly all members would be better off moving to the BSPS2, but as formal...

February 20, 2018
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20Feb

Ghana. Private pension funds hit GH¢9.7bn; expert wants funds used for prudent investments

Private pension funds have maintained their strong growth over the years, reaching a record high of GH¢9.7billion in 2017, from the previous year’s GH¢6.8billion. Data from the sector regulator, the National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA), show that 9.2 billion of the 9.7 billion was accrued from Assets Under Management (AUM) managed by licenced trustees, while some GH¢0.5billion came from the Temporary Pension Fund Account (TPFA). Last year’s figure, which is over 4.5 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), represents...

February 20, 2018
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19Feb

How To Save More For Retirement And Deal With Volatility

The past few weeks have given stock investors around the world a bitter taste of the volatility dragon that comes out of its cave every once and a while. It hasn't been pleasant. After years of steady returns, we seem to be in a new market phase. Interest rates are climbing. Stock prices are getting pummeled. And the U.S. will be pitching global investors on trillions of dollars in new debt. There are some easy ways to deal with volatility while...

February 19, 2018
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19Feb

The pensions gender gap

AS you may remember, we recently looked at a report from the pensions company Aegon which highlighted the pensions saving gap between men and women. It revealed that by age 50, women have on average saved half as much as men into their pension: just £56,000 compared to £112,000 for their male colleagues. Well, now there have been some studies done down south, that show this is not just an exclusively UK or Northern Ireland problem, it goes right across the...

February 19, 2018
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19Feb

US. Spending Bill Sets Path to Fix a Looming Pension Crisis

The sprawling agreement to boost government spending reached by Republicans and Democrats this month quietly included a step toward defusing what could be a financial time bomb for 1.5 million retirees and hundreds of companies in the industrial Midwest and the South. The deal creates a select congressional committee to craft what could effectively be a federal rescue of as many as 200 so-called “multiemployer” pension plans — in which employers and labor unions band together to provide retirement benefits...

February 19, 2018
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19Feb

Japan, short of workers, eyes hiking optional pension age beyond 70

Japan has okayed plans to let people choose to start drawing their state pensions beyond the age of 70 as it grapples with severe labour shortages, ballooning welfare costs and a shrivelling tax base stemming from its greying population. The government said on Friday it would look to cement the proposals through legal changes after April 2020, adding that it would look at raising in stages the mandatory retirement age for some 3.4 million civil servants to 65 from the...

February 19, 2018
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16Feb

Steel pensions scheme victim to ‘major mis-selling scandal’

In 2017 the Indian firm announced a restructuring of the £14bn fund to keep its UK loss-making operations afloat. But the government, Tata and regulators failed to protect 124,000 members from a "major mis-selling scandal", the Work and Pensions Select Committee said. The UK government has yet to issue its response to the "neglect" claim. Read More: BBC News

February 16, 2018
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