May 2021
14May

South Africa: Green light for infrastructure investment by retirement funds?

In South Africa, the draft Amendments to Regulation 28 of the Pension Funds Act were published by National Treasury earlier this month. These amendments will allow retirement funds to invest up to 45% of their assets in infrastructure. This is set to open a huge potential source of funding for domestic infrastructure projects, but there has been some debate around whether this will be enough to help bridge the country’s infrastructure gap. Draft Amendments to Regulation 28 of the Pension...

May 14, 2021
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14May

US. Biden’s $86 Billion Pension Rescue Set to Boost Corporate Bonds

U.S. President Joe Biden’s pension bailout might do more than just support troubled retirement plans. It could also spur tens of billions of dollars in demand for corporate bonds with the lowest investment-grade ratings, according to Citigroup Inc. Struggling multi-employer pensions, which are often tied to unions, will be able to apply for special financial assistance, thanks to the $1.9 trillion pandemic-relief bill signed into law in March. Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., which insurers the plans, will make a single...

May 14, 2021
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14May

UK. Pensions Dashboard Programme publishes updated timeline with breakdown of next six months

The Pensions Dashboard Programme (PDP) has published an updated timeline outlining steps and timings for data providers to enable the industry to prepare for connecting with the dashboard ecosystem. The PDP - set up by the Money and Pensions Service (Maps) - has outlined further timings for the industry to connect with the programme as part of its third progress update report including a breakdown... Read also UK. DB transfer victims lose up to 40% of compensation The PDP - set up...

May 14, 2021
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13May

US. Pension Funds Are Desperate to Cut Costs, but Consolidation Isn’t the Answer

Public pension funds that merge with their peers have historically hailed it as a smart way to cut costs and achieve economies of scale. But the strategy of consolidating funds, particularly for large ones, is not yielding the benefits it once once did, new research shows. In fact, for some funds, the economies of scale they are achieving is “rather mediocre,” according to a paper published this month by researchers Jacob Antoon Bikker and Jeroen Meringa from De Nederlandsche Bank, the...

May 13, 2021
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13May

Netherlands: Postponement of pension reforms

Last year, social partners and the Dutch government reached an agreement on pension reforms in the Netherlands. The agreement’s aims - amongst others – is to abolish defined benefit schemes and to prescribe flat rates for defined contribution schemes. It was expected that the reforms would enter into force through an accelerated legislative approval process from 1 January 2022 (with a transition period from 2022 to 2026). However, since the legislation took more time than expected to be prepared,...

May 13, 2021
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13May

China. Shanghai raising residents’ old age pensions

Shanghai is raising old age pensions, the city’s Human Resources and Social Security Bureau announced on Tuesday. Retirees covered by the social security fund for employees will get a 3 percent increase in their monthly pension from last year and an additional 70 yuan (US$10.8) a month. Women over 60 and men over 65 will get an extra 20 yuan a month per person. People included in city residents' basic pension scheme will have their pensions increased by 100 yuan to...

May 13, 2021
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13May

Turkey: The Regulation On The Private Pension System Has Been Amended

Amendments regarding the Regulation on the Private Pension System ("Regulation") were published in the Official Gazette No. 31476 dated 6 May 2021. With the changes introduced by the Insurance and Private Pension Regulation and Supervision Agency ("Agency"), new regulations have been created regarding the use of electronic means of communication, the maximum number of changes allowed in a fund distribution and the purchase and sale of pension investment funds via a central electronic platform. You can read the amendments...

May 13, 2021
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13May

US. Strong Stock Market Boosts 401(k) Investors’ Equity Exposure

A surging stock market, coupled with slow and steady trades into equities, brought 401(k) investors in April to their highest level of equity exposure since 2001, according to the Alight Solutions 401(k) index. During the month, nearly all the trading days favored equities over fixed income; four days favored fixed income funds, and 17 days favored equity funds. Also of note was the fact that April has no days of above-normal trading activity. The average net trading activity was a mere...

May 13, 2021
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12May

US. In Reversal, Retirements Increased During the Pandemic

After decades in which it decreased, the retirement rate rose during the pandemic, according to the latest government data. This makes retirement one exception to the many ways that the pandemic accelerated pre-existing trends, such as toward suburbanization and online shopping. In the year since the pandemic started — the 12 months ending in March 2021 — 17.0 percent of Americans aged 55 to 64 were retired, up from 16.8 percent in the two previous years. But this is still...

May 12, 2021
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12May

Kenya. Civil servants mass departure pushes pension to Sh150bn

Mass retirement of civil servants has pushed pension payouts to more than Sh150 billion, underlining the burden of a fast-aging public service to taxpayers on the back of delays in implementing reforms in the past. The Treasury has projected the pension department will require Sh153.64 billion in the financial year starting July 2021 to honour monthly pensions claims and gratuity pay by senior citizens. Read also South Africa: Green light for infrastructure investment by retirement funds? This is a 38.24 percent jump...

May 12, 2021
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