September 2017

25Sep

UK. Labour to offer some women earlier retirement option

Government changes to the retirement age have been "chaotic", shadow work and pensions secretary Debbie Abrahams will tell Labour's conference later. Many women who expected to retire at 60 must now work several years longer before receiving a state pension. Ms Abrahams will say her plan would mean pension security for thousands. Her change would benefit women born between 1954 and 1960. "This will ensure that those who have suffered the consequences of this government's chaotic mismanagement of the state pension...

September 25, 2017
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25Sep

India. A year on, still no decision on pension fund managers

On 17 September 2016, the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) invited fresh bids for managing funds for the private sector National Pension System (NPS). But a year later, the authority is yet to finalise the bids and issue fresh licences to the pension fund managers (PFMs) of NPS. In the interim, the managers continue to operate through an extension. “The request for proposal for the PFMs was valid till July. However, the regulator sought an extension of...

September 25, 2017
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22Sep

For Asia’s rapidly aging populations, innovation and forward-thinking policies drive retirement security

The quickening pace of aging in Asia -- a region with more than half the world's population over 60 -- has urgent implications for the region's families, retirees, pensions and policy makers. "Given Asia's aging populations, retirement challenges are particularly acute in the region," said Professor David Blake, director of the Pensions Institute at London's Cass Business School. "Solutions require urgent action from both businesses and individuals, and governments need to implement policies that support this action." With falling birth rates and declining death rates, Asia's societies face...

September 22, 2017
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22Sep

Ukraine Pension Reform Changes Worry World Bank, IMF

The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are concerned about amendments to pending pension reform legislation needed to unlock further funding under a $17.5 billion (£12.92 billion) IMF programme, the World Bank's Ukraine director said on Friday. A draft law to put the buckling pension system on a sustainable footing passed a first reading in parliament in July, but the bill has been modified with scores of amendments ahead of a second round of voting. "The revised draft law presented...

September 22, 2017
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22Sep

Biggest Africa Fund Manager May See Funds Pulled by Unions

Africa’s biggest fund manager may be dumped by a labor federation representing 230,000 South African state workers because it’s concerned that the funds of its members may be used to bail out mismanaged state-owned companies. The Federation of Unions of South Africa, the country’s second-largest labor union grouping, is considering replacing the state-owned Public Investment Corp. with privately owned fund managers to oversee the pension funds of the state workers, including nurses and teachers, that it represents. “There is nothing in...

September 22, 2017
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22Sep

Ireland. Government to introduce auto-enrolment pension scheme for all workers

Leo Varadkar used a speech to the employer's group IBEC tonight to announce the centrepiece of an upcoming national pension plan. He told the audience that two-thirds of private sector workers in Ireland have no pension, warning that the time bomb must be addressed now. “This issue has been long-fingered for too long and now that the economy is recovering strongly we must act decisively and we will publish a five year road-map for pension reform before the end of the...

September 22, 2017
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21Sep

UK watchdog to investigate conflicts of interest among pension fund advisers

Britain's competitions watchdog will look into the advice given by consultants to pension schemes and other institutions managing over 1.6 trillion pounds ($2.2 trillion) of funds, to see if there are conflicts of interest, it said on Thursday. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) will assess whether investment consultants offer a poor level of service and whether difficulties comparing and switching consultants provide little incentive for them to compete for customers. In addition, it will investigate if there are barriers to...

September 21, 2017
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21Sep

Kazakh pension scandals stir criticism of government

Media trainer Anara Kuandikova, 29, is typical of the generation of post-independence professionals who have most to lose if anything goes wrong with oil-rich Kazakhstan's scandal-struck Unified Pension Fund. "I still see my pension contributions as a real investment in my future," said Kuandikova, who works in Astana and pays a tenth of her $600 monthly salary -- one-and-a-half times the national average wage -- into the fund. "But the more negative information you hear, the more you begin to...

September 21, 2017
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20Sep

El Salvador: Protests against pension fund ‘monopolies’

Representatives of various social organizations and unions in El Salvador rejected the “monopoly” Pension Fund Administrators (AFP) and the management of profits created by workers’ savings. Around 50 people protested the morning of September 18 at the headquarters of one of only two AFPs in the Central American country. Dionisio Flores, representative of the union of state-run National Aqueduct and Sewerage Administration, declared that they stand “against a monopoly in which private enterprise has taken over workers’ funds.” Salvadorean President Salvador...

September 20, 2017
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20Sep

Hong Kong needs to reform pension fund system: PwC report

Hong Kong's pension fund, Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF), a system which covers 73 percent of the employed population in Hong Kong, needs to address problems to manage risks, a PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) report said on Tuesday. The problems include high fees, unattractive returns, a reliance on paper-based processing, and a blanket approach that offers few incentives for members to pay more into their MPF portfolios, said PwC's Review of Hong Kong's MPF System: Recommendations for Key Reforms. Hong Kong is not immune...

September 20, 2017
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