August 2018

23Aug

India. Explained: National Pension System recent changes make NPS more subscriber-friendly; 10 points

National Pension System (NPS): Over the years, the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) has undertaken several measures to make the NPS  more beneficial for the subscribers. The recent notification, which was issued in July, makes the NPS (also popularly referred to as National Payment System) more subscriber friendly. Until last month, there were 11,758469 NPS subscribers in the country with assets under management of Rs 2,50,758 crore! Most of the subscribers are government employees, the number of subscribers...

August 23, 2018
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23Aug

Ireland. Gov launchs consultation process for mandatory pensions

The Government is launching a consultation process for the first step towards mandatory pensions this afternoon. Minister Regina Doherty is announcing the process for an 'Auto Enrollment Retirement Savings System.' It could see almost all workers enrolled from 2022 to ensure people working in the private are saving enough for their future. Donal Keating is a Tax Director with Price Waterhouse Coopers. He said today's announcement is of most benefit to under 35s: "If you're sitting listening and you're 58 saying I have...

August 23, 2018
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23Aug

4 ways to rethink social protection for future work in Asia

Anyone who studies welfare systems, particularly on providing social protection or social security for every citizen, usually goes back to the argument between the approaches defended by 19th century German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck and UK progressive economist Lord William Beveridge. These two models have divergent objectives: while Bismarck’s is to assure a standard of living, the Beveridge system focuses on securing a subsistence level. Although there is some convergence, both models are still being practiced throughout the world. People are...

August 23, 2018
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23Aug

International Labor Organization Urges Stronger Social Protections in Latin America

“When the economy is doing well, social protection systems work better, they develop, more people are covered. But when crises hit, spending cuts must be made and social protections are affected,” the ILO’s director for the Southern Cone, Fabio Bertranou, told reporters in Buenos Aires. Applying counter-cyclical fiscal policies to face economic fluctuations is one of the recommendations made in the ILO’s report “Present and future of social protection in Latin America and the Caribbean,” which was presented Wednesday by...

August 23, 2018
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22Aug

US. Workers want employers to help more with retirement planning

Many employers appear to be missing the mark when it comes to helping workers prepare for their golden years. While just 16 percent of companies are "very confident" that their employees will be financial secure in retirement, they also often fail to offer the savings tools that their workers actually want, a new study from the nonprofit Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies shows. "There's a basic disconnect related to worker expectations," said Catherine Collison, president and CEO of the center and...

August 22, 2018
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22Aug

UK. Ian McKenna: We must pull pensions dashboard back from brink of demise

Suggestions that secretary of state for work and pensions Esther McVey may no longer be committed to the delivery of the pensions dashboard project has caused much wailing and gnashing of teeth around the industry. Personally, I do not see the problem. This is the perfect opportunity for it to take back ownership and control of the project. The current scope is so unwieldy while also being so constricted in its distribution (only to be available via the new single guidance...

August 22, 2018
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22Aug

Japan. The World’s Biggest Pension Fund Needs U.S. Bull Run to Last

The world’s biggest pension fund, always a giant within its home country of Japan, has been expanding its reach in other stock markets -- and becoming increasingly dependent on a U.S. bull run that’s poised to be the longest in history. The $1.4 trillion Government Pension Investment Fund has doubled its foreign shares since a strategy overhaul in 2014, and is now a top 10 holder in more than 260 companies outside Japan, according to a Bloomberg analysis of GPIF’s...

August 22, 2018
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22Aug

South Africa Labor Unions Push for New State Pension-Manager Law

South Africa’s main labor group is pushing parliament to adopt proposed changes to laws regulating the continent’s biggest money manager, which oversees state workers’ pensions, to make it more accountable and give unions representation on its board. Parliament’s finance committee is processing the Public Investment Corp. Amendment Bill, but the Congress of South African Trade Unions fears the state’s decision to appoint a commission to investigate the fund manager’s governance and operating model could derail its adoption. The commission will...

August 22, 2018
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22Aug

Ireland. New compulsory pension scheme capped at €75,000

Private sector workers earning more than €20,000 a year will be automatically enrolled in the new scheme, which will see the Government contribute €1 for every €3 put into a State-run pension fund. Workers will not be able to opt out of the system for at least nine months. Employees earning more than €75,000 can contribute to the scheme but they will not be able to put any earnings above the salary cap into their pension pots. Workers earning less than €20,000...

August 22, 2018
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21Aug

Three behavioural barriers to solid retirement planning, and how you can overcome them

I read with great interest a recently released Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) report entitled Encouraging Retirement Planning through Behavioural Insights. It provides strategies for governments, employers, financial advisers and those planning for retirement to implement to make it easier to become financially independent. Behavioural finance has risen to prominence recently, in part because of the work of “nudge” economist Richard Thaler, who won the Nobel Prize last year for his pioneering work in the field of behavioural economics. There can...

August 21, 2018
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