April 2021

Chile Pension Furor Grows Over Third Round of Withdrawals

Chile’s senate on Thursday approved legislation allowing early pension fund withdrawals, just days after President Sebastian Pinera challenged the bill’s legality in the Constitutional Court. Read also Chile begins debate on third pension withdrawal amid second wave of the pandemic Lawmakers including several Pinera allies backed the bill permitting workers to tap as much as 10% of their retirement savings for the third time since the pandemic started, with 31 votes in favor and 11 against. The proposal will return to...

Comfortable retirement still on track for most Americans despite pandemic – survey

The coronavirus pandemic did little to shake the retirement confidence of most American workers and retirees, according to the 2021 Retirement Confidence Survey released Thursday by the Employee Benefit Research Institute and Greenwald Research. Despite the turmoil COVID-19 stirred up in the employment and financial markets, 80% of retirees said they were confident in their ability to live comfortably throughout retirement, while 72% of those still in the workforce expressed confidence in their ability to retire in comfort, the survey...

A $120 Billion Danish Pension Manager Loses Faith in Bonds

In one of the world’s best-run pension markets, the biggest commercial manager says it’s time to dump bonds. “The switch out of fixed income into broader equities, whether it’s listed or unlisted, is what we recommend and what we are positioned for,” Kasper Lorenzen, chief investment officer at Copenhagen-based PFA, said in an interview. Back when most asset managers were being taught the trade, “we learned that government bonds are the safe assets, the risk-free asset,” he said. “Well, let’s see...

Debate cycle by Observatory of European Systems of Complementary Social Pension Plans

The Observatory of European Systems of Complementary Social Pension Plans of the University of Barcelona, which was created a year ago, will launch its first dissemination activity for the audience on April 29. The activity is a debate cycle on complemenary social pension plans, that is, the set of actions to fulfil the public pensions from a private entrepreneurial and individual initiative. The first session of the cycle will talk about the latest recommendations on complementary social pension plans in...

UK. Two thirds of this year’s retirees at risk of running pension pot dry

Two-thirds (66 per cent) of those retiring in 2021 are at risk of running out of pension savings in their retirement, according to research from Standard Life Aberdeen. The research, which surveyed 2,000 UK adults who were either due to retire this year or had retired in the past 12 months, published today (April 21), found the class of 2021 planned to spend around £21,000 a year in retirement. And although this is almost £10,000 less than the average household income...

Australian regulator issues long-awaited climate risk guidance

Australia's prudential regulator unveiled long-awaited guidance for banks, insurers and pension funds on managing and disclosing climate-related risks, including physical, transition and liability exposures. Issuing a draft version for consultation, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) said the guidance paper did not create new requirements or obligations, but gave more clarity about its expectations. The guide was developed in consultation with peer regulators globally and is aligned with the recommendations from the global Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosure (TCFD), set...

China’s Coming Pro-Natalist Campaign

Birth rates in China are crashing. Last year, they fell to the lowest level since Mao Zedong founded the modern Chinese state in 1949. This poses immense long-term challenges for everything from pensions to labor markets. Beijing’s leaders realize this. This is why China’s notorious “one-child policy” was loosened nationwide to a two-child one back in 2015. Read also Asia Is Increasing Its ESG Asset Appetite But the next step will be far more dramatic. After decades of attempting to limit births,...

UK. Retirement app Pensionbee valued at £365m in London listing

Online pension management app Pensionbee (PBEE.L) has joined the London Stock Exchange in an IPO that values the business at £365m ($507m). The retirement savings app priced its shares at 165p each on Wednesday, the company said in a filing. Conditional trading began on Wednesday, with shares trading slightly below the offer price by mid-morning. Read also Vanguard launches price war in UK pensions market Pensionbee raised around £55m via the sale of 33m new shares and the sale of over 2...

Canada. CDPQ Real Estate arm ties staff pay to ESG goals in zero emissions push

Ivanhoe Cambridge, the real estate arm of Canada's second-largest pension fund, has tied employee and executive remuneration to hitting environmental targets as it commits to cut net carbon emissions to zero by 2040, its CEO said on Tuesday. Chief Executive Officer Nathalie Palladitcheff said Ivanhoe, which owns 1,100 properties globally, will add C$6 billion ($4.8 billion) in low carbon investments and, as an interim target, reduce carbon intensity by 35% by 2025. Since January, employee pay at Ivanhoe, including all its...

UK. Industry tightens up on pension scams as losses hit £10bn

Pension schemes face tougher due diligence requirements on transfer requests as new figures show the amount lost to pension scams and fraud has hit £10 billion five years after the introduction of the pension freedoms. Regulators, courts and The Pensions Ombudsman (TPO) have all made significant statements in recent months which cover both the fall-out from previous scams and the prevention of future scams. In its recent report, the House of Commons Work and Pensions Committee called on the government...