August 2018

16Aug

Canada. BMO Capital Markets Launches First-of-its-Kind Blockchain Pilot to Mirror Canadian Dollar Fixed Income Issuance Transaction with Ontario Teachers’

First Canadian dollar fixed income issuance by a major bank in Canada testing blockchain technology TORONTO, Aug. 15, 2018 /CNW/ - BMO Capital Markets today announced that it has successfully launched a pilot fixed income issuance transaction, mirrored on a blockchain platform alongside leading pension fund investor Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (Ontario Teachers'). The transaction included Bank of Montreal as the issuer and Ontario Teachers' as the buyer of a CDN$250MM 1-year floating rate Deposit Note, making it the first Canadian...

August 16, 2018
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16Aug

US. Have Public Employee Pensions Become More Generous, or Less?

There’s a debate going on about public employee pensions. One study finds that government pensions have become more generous over the years. But a prominent academic replies that public sector retirement benefits have remained steady in generosity and taxpayer costs have actually fallen because public employees are paying more for their pensions. Who’s right? Me, that’s who. It’s an important debate: retirement benefits are needed to attract public employees but excessive benefits can squeeze out other important parts of state and...

August 16, 2018
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16Aug

UK. Victims of pension scammers lost an average £91,000: UK regulators

Pension scam victims lost £91,000 each on average last year, according to new figures from the City watchdog and the pensions regulator. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and The Pensions Regulator (TPR) have teamed up to launch the ScamSmart advertising campaign, which is aimed at pension holders aged between 45 and 65 as they are most at risk of losing their cash. According to the regulators, highly sophisticated scammers lure people into transferring their pensions into fraudulent schemes. Victims of pension...

August 16, 2018
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15Aug

US. Despite Temporary Tax Advantage, Companies Pouring Money into Pension Plans Should be Prepared to Face an Increase in Future Funding Obligations

Many US corporations have been taking steps to make big contributions to their pension plans and close funding gaps because of current tax advantages, which have a September 15, 2018, deadline. But investment firm Cambridge Associates cautions that a focus on this near-term opportunity should not cause plan sponsors to overlook the rising long-term challenges to funded status that lie ahead. While the near-term result could be improved funded status for a given plan and company, it does not promise...

August 15, 2018
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15Aug

Switzerland. Zurich scientists urge state pension fund to divest from fossil fuels

Professors and researchers from Zurich’s Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich) have joined the chorus of civil society actorsexternal link calling for the Swiss state pension fund to divest from fossil fuels. In a letterexternal link to Publica, one of the largest pension funds in Switzerland, 166 experts from ETH Zurich, including 128 professors, demanded it stop investing in climate-damaging companies within five years. Publica currently invests around 2% or CHF800 million ($807 million) of the CHF40 billion on its balance...

August 15, 2018
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15Aug

EBA calls for second-level pension scheme in Ukraine

The European Business Association (EBA) has called on the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank to place pressure on Ukraine to introduce a second-level pension scheme. “It is important to make effective and qualitative steps that will reduce the deficit in the pension system,” said the EBA in a statement. “In Ukraine, there are about 12 million people of retirement age and the pension deficit is more than 200 billion hryvnia (6.3 billion euros). Given the steady growth...

August 15, 2018
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15Aug

South Africa. World Bank: Contributory pension fund could help SA’s poor

A contributory pension system, subsidised for poor South Africans, will impact both poverty and inequality, Parliament has heard - driving "forced savings" and helping people build assets that can be invested. Speaking to Parliament's Standing Committee on Finance (SCOF) on Tuesday, Marek Hanusch, a senior economist for the World Bank's global practice for macroeconomics, shared the organisation's proposed model to address poverty and inequality. The model is based on research in the World Bank's book An incomplete transition: Overcoming the...

August 15, 2018
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14Aug

Commonwealth Bank of Australia breached pension rules, inquiry hears

Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) “breached a legislative provision” when it failed to transfer 15,000 pension customers to a low-cost product, an inquiry into financial sector conduct heard on Tuesday. Documents read at the Royal Commission showed the bank failed to comply with a law introduced in 2014 to provide low-cost retirement funds - dubbed superannuation funds - to some clients who did not choose a specific retirement savings product. Michael Hodge, the barrister assisting the commission, said that as such,...

August 14, 2018
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14Aug

Korea. Public against national pension changes

People are becoming more worried about life after retirement as the government is seeking to extend the mandatory national pension subscription period by five years to better finance the depleting pension fund. According to the National Pension Service (NPS), the pension fund is expected to bottom out by 2056 or 2057, three to four years earlier than the NPS predicted five years ago. So the government is contemplating extending the subscription period to the age of 65 from the current...

August 14, 2018
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14Aug

Irish retirees at risk of losing UK pension payments over Brexit

Pension payments being made to thousands of people in this country are threatened by Britain’s plans to pull out of the European Union, it has emerged. The issue is a huge risk to the pension payments of people who worked in the UK and get either a UK state pension, a British private pension or both. And it is likely to affect people who worked in Northern Ireland but live in the Republic and receive a sterling pension. Around 120,000 people here...

August 14, 2018
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