September 2017

12Sep

Tata Steel UK’s pensions deal approved by regulator

Steel firm Tata's bid to separate its UK pension scheme from the business has been approved by the pensions regulator. The £15bn British Steel Pension Scheme (BSPS) has been a significant barrier to any potential merger between Tata and German steel producer ThyssenKrupp. The deal affects thousands of current and former workers, with 130,000 members across the UK. All members of the BSPS will now be invited to transfer to a new scheme. It would have lower future annual increases for...

September 12, 2017
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12Sep

Why the presidency should save PenCom from politics

The Nigerian constitution reposes a lot of powers on the Office of the President. For the most part, the incumbent rightly exercises these powers powerfully and seamlessly. At other times, the office encounters challenges, confrontations, and contestations in exercising these rights. The latter scenario usually attracts divergent views as to the propriety or otherwise of presidential powers, as enshrined in the constitution. The recent tussle between the senate and the presidency with regards to the confirmation of Mr Magu, as...

September 12, 2017
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12Sep

UK. NEST withdraws investment from low carbon laggards

NEST, the workplace pension scheme set up by the UK government, will today urge investment managers to push for higher environmental and corporate governance standards as it announces further progress against the green investment strategy deployed across its £2bn portfolio. The National Employment Savings Trust (NEST), which provides 5.4 million UK workers with pensions under the government's auto-enrolment scheme, revealed it has withdrawn £27.2m of investments in the past year from companies it said were not making sufficient progress towards...

September 12, 2017
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11Sep

Fintech has transformed payments but not savings, says BlackRock’s chief executive

The financial technology boom has transformed the way over a billion people engage with financial services, particularly when it comes to making payments, but Larry Fink, chief executive of BlackRock, the world’s largest money manager, said that no company has yet managed to use technology successfully to get people investing for the long term. “I believe that if we give more people more confidence about savings, about how to save – like Warren Buffett – then that would transform many...

September 11, 2017
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11Sep

Korea’s Stubborn Leviathan

Sentencing the billionaire leader of South Korea's largest and most powerful company, Samsung Electronics Co., to five years in prison for bribery and embezzlement sent a strong signal the country might finally push through long-promised corporate reform. But if Korea really wants to clean up the overly cozy and sometimes corrupt relationship between the government and large family-owned business groups, known as chaebol, it will have to look inward to its own national pension fund. Since most workers must contribute...

September 11, 2017
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11Sep

US. Workers Wanted: Aging population presents double challenge in health care

Wisconsin’s growing worker shortage presents a particularly difficult challenge for the health care industry, especially in rural areas and at facilities that care for the elderly and disabled. As Wisconsin’s baby boomers retire in greater numbers over the coming decades and live longer than previous generations, there will be more consumers of health care while the working-age population that provides those services is projected to stay about the same. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, those age 65 and...

September 11, 2017
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09Sep

Nigeria. Digitization, fintech as panacea to financial inclusion

One of the compelling aspirations of the Federal Government and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in the last two years has been to ramp up the numbers for financial inclusion in the country. To this end, Nigeria’s apex bank, alongside other regulators in the financial services sector, including the National Pension Commission (PENCOM), has vigorously pursued the agenda of financial inclusion through various initiatives with a clear intent to bring millions of Nigerians, especially those in the informal...

September 9, 2017
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08Sep

Ageing populations will drag on growth in Asia: IMF chief

 The chief of the International Monetary Fund warned Thursday that ageing populations in key Asian economies will drag on their growth, urging policymakers to step up their response to shifting demographics. Studies show that Asia's population is ageing faster than anywhere else in the world, with Japan forecast to become the first "ultra-aged" country, meaning 28 percent of the population is 65 or over, while a fifth of the people in South Korea are expected to be 65 by 2030. Rapidly...

September 8, 2017
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08Sep

Philippines. SSS selling more properties to fund pension hike

The state-run pension fund Social Security System (SSS) will sell over P3.45 billion in properties to augment its revenues amid the implementation of the pension hike approved by President Rodrigo Duterte. SSS president and chief executive officer Emmanuel F. Dooc said most of the real estate properties to be auctioned off beginning this year until 2022 include “dacióned” and foreclosed condominium units, houses as well as memorial lots. “Most of these properties identified for sale were paid to the SSS through ‘dación pago’ or...

September 8, 2017
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08Sep

Major change. Romania’s second pension pillar could have optional contributions

Under current rules, the contributions are evenly split between the first pension pillar, managed by the state, and the second one, which is managed by private administrators. There is a third pension pillar which is private. “Nobody will dismantle pillar II, nobody will nationalize it, nobody will harm it. (…) It will become optional,” said Tudose in an interview for Digi24. The PM went on to say that the first pension pillar had better results based on the minimum wage, but...

September 8, 2017
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