September 2018

04Sep

UK. Fracking investments by council pension funds ‘unlawful’

More than £600m was provided by council pension funds to firms with fracking operations overseas in 2016-17. Campaigners argued the situation appeared "to fly in the face of the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act". Council leaders said "great consideration" was given to making responsible investments. The Welsh Government is currently consulting on its position not to grant new licences for fracking in Wales, having had a moratorium on the practice in place since 2015. In October it is set to receive control over...

September 4, 2018
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04Sep

Swiss youth worry more about pensions than immigration: survey

A total of 53 percent of Swiss youth surveyed claimed they are worried about their pensions, compared with 41 percent last year, the barometer has found. Immigration, which preoccupied almost half those surveyed last year, only registered as a concern among 29 percent surveyed this year. Swiss youngsters are more optimistic when it comes to the job market. Only 34 percent felt their job would disappear due to the threat posed by digitization compared with almost three out of four young people...

September 4, 2018
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04Sep

UK. Union call for pension funds clean-up over links to Donald Trump’s migrant camps

UNISON has proposed a merger of pension pots and the creation of a new ethical investment unit. The call comes after The Sunday Post revealed £138 million of Scottish workers’ pension cash was being used to bankroll the US President’s immigration detention centres. The funds are managed by global finance firms with huge investments in GEO Group and CoreCivic, America’s largest private prison operators. Strathclyde Pension Fund, which manages pension funds for 230,000 public service workers, has £52m invested. Lothian Pension Fund, with...

September 4, 2018
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03Sep

US. Retirement plans see rise in cyberattacks

While we may have hoped that employer-sponsored retirement plans would escape the types of cyberattacks plaguing financial service providers and dominating headlines, service providers to employee benefit plans have experienced a substantial increase in cyberattacks over the past few years. One plan record keeper noted the number of these attacks have more than doubled since 2016. Cybersecurity threats present new risks for fiduciaries of employer-sponsored retirement plans, as well as for advisers and other providers who serve them. However, these...

September 3, 2018
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03Sep

UK. Tax relief on pensions serves to enrich the wealthy. That must change

Pensions tax relief is a juicy morsel for the chancellor should he find a way to make it benefit the exchequer. Even a small slice of the £38bn spent each year subsidising pension saving could help thousands of schools and hundreds of hospitals that would otherwise be starved of cash. A £10bn saving is not outside the bounds of possibility, and that is without even shaking the system to its foundations. All Philip Hammond needs to do in his autumn...

September 3, 2018
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03Sep

French unions plan anti-Macron strike on 9 October

Two of France's major trade unions, the CGT and Force Ouvrière, have called for the strike, along with a students' union and a school students' union. A third labour grouping, Solidaires, has backed the call in principle but will take its official decision next week. In a statement, they condemned Macron's "ideological policies targeting the destruction of our social model, especially favouring an explosion of inequality and the destruction of collective rights". Decisions like the government's announcement that pensions, housing benefit and...

September 3, 2018
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03Sep

Why Nigerians Seek Protection Of Participants In Micro Pension Scheme

The scheme is targeted at the informal sector operators who constitutes over 50 million working adults and un-pensionable Nigerian population who by virtue of their professions, trades and endeavours do neither belong to the current CPS arrangement provided by the Pension Reform Act 2014 as amended nor have a veritable platform to save for their retirement. Nigeria has an adult population of 96.4 million (50.8% Male and 49.2% Female) with 63.9% residing in the rural areas. 56.2million adults (58.3% of...

September 3, 2018
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03Sep

Pension reform in the Czech Republic

Throughout the last 20 years, pension reform has been a crucial topic of public debate in the Czech Republic. Since the major overhaul of the pension systems in 1995, which transformed the previous socialist model to a new one that would fit the market economy, many reform steps have been taken. Speaking for the policy makers and key stakeholders of the Czech society, it is appropriate to say that we believe the pension reform is an ongoing process that...

September 3, 2018
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03Sep

China’s Pension Reforms: Political Institutions, Skill Formation and Pension Policy in China (China Policy Series)

By Ke Meng Existing literature has looked at many factors which have shaped Chinese pension reforms. As China’s pension reform proceeds in an expanding and localising fashion, this book argues that there is a pressing need to examine it in the context of China’s political institutions and economic transformations. The book takes a unique approach by looking at political institutions of the Chinese state and the changing conditions of the Chinese economy, which rarely receive proper treatment in the current...

September 3, 2018
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03Sep

China's Pension Reforms: Political Institutions, Skill Formation and Pension Policy in China (China Policy Series)

By Ke Meng Existing literature has looked at many factors which have shaped Chinese pension reforms. As China’s pension reform proceeds in an expanding and localising fashion, this book argues that there is a pressing need to examine it in the context of China’s political institutions and economic transformations. The book takes a unique approach by looking at political institutions of the Chinese state and the changing conditions of the Chinese economy, which rarely receive proper treatment in the current...

September 3, 2018
Books, Pension design, Regulation, , ,
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