July 2019

Africa. Treasury calls for pensions funding of infrastructure

The Treasury has joined a growing chorus for pension schemes to pool funds for big-ticket infrastructure projects to ease overreliance on expensive debt. Mr Stanley Kamau, the acting director-general for Public Investments and Portfolio Management at the Treasury, said the Sh1 trillion pension industry can help plug part of the country’s infrastructure finance gap. Kenya’s deficit in projects such as roads, power plants and lines, bridges, water and houses is conservatively estimated at more than Sh400 billion a year....

Japan’s Answer to Its Pension Problems: Invest Like the U.S.

An official report advising Japanese couples to have at least $185,000 of their own savings for retirement has shaken up an election race and triggered a wave of interest in investing in a country where retirees have long counted chiefly on state pensions. On a recent weekend, a seminar on money management was packed with investment beginners. Mitsugu Kanda, a 28-year-old printing-company salesman, said he was thinking of putting money into stocks to help him accumulate the suggested amount....

US. Coloradans support state-operated retirement savings plan for private workers, poll says

More than two-thirds of Colorado voters support the state creating a retirement savings plan for private-sector employees whose employers do not offer one, according to a new survey commissioned by a political group that pushes progressive legislation at statehouses across the nation. The results of the poll, first reported by The Denver Post, come about a week after Gov. Jared Polis appointed eight people to help study how Colorado could join a small but growing number of states that...

Africa. Treasury bars early access to pension money

You will no longer be able to access pension contributions from your employer until retirement. In another flip-flop of the pension regulations, the National Treasury has reversed regulations that had allowed employees to withdraw up to half of pension contributions by their employers before they attained retirement age. LONG-TERM The policy, which was popular for employees in the private sector, had caused a major discomfort in the pension industry which had come to be accustomed to staying with retirement...

México. Citibanamex peleará por los ahorros en Oro Negro

Citibanamex acudió ante el juez que lleva el concurso mercantil de Oro Negro para pedir la protección de sus intereses como titular de 49.36 por ciento de las acciones de esa empresa de servicios petroleros. Esa participación la obtuvo en 2013 mediante una inversión de su Afore en Axis Capital, un fondo creado por Gonzalo Gil White, hijo del exsecretario de Hacienda, Francisco Gil Díaz. El 14 de junio, el día que se declaró la quiebra de la empresa...

México. UberEats y otras plataformas aceleran la precarización laboral sin consecuencia ante la autoridad

Los mexicanos que laboran en plataformas digitales como Uber, Rappi, Cabify o Sin Delantal, no tienen acceso a prestaciones sociales, dado que estas empresas no realizan el pago de impuestos y cuotas patronales, sin que ello signifique una violación a los derechos de los trabajadores. Las plataformas de software ofrecen a sus ‘asociados’ el esquema de autoempleo, y para ello, conductores y repartidores deben registrarse en el padrón de contribuyentes del Servicio de Administración Tributaria (SAT) como prestadores de...

Perú. “Pensión injusta para mañana”

Existen muchas dudas sobre el futuro de las AFP y la ONP, para los peruanos afiliados, quienes están próximos a su jubilación, sobre todo en el monto que les toca percibir para intentar vivir dignamente. Los sistemas previsionales, pasan por una incertidumbre entre los que ofrecen y la realidad para el afiliado; es por ello que un estudio realizado por el Fondo Monetario Internacional (FMI) determina que se deben realizar cambios urgentes para poder alcanzar el objetivo principal, consistente...

India. Congress submits adjournment motion notice in LS over ‘pension of disabled Army personnel’

An adjournment motion is an extraordinary procedure which, if admitted, leads to setting aside the normal business of the House for discussing a definite matter of urgent public importance. The disability pension till now was not taxed by the government but recently, the government decided to tax it leading to opposition from the veterans community. On July 2, the Army headquarters clarified that though it is concerned for all personnel who are invalidated out of service in combat conditions...

US. Gov. Bevin: Special session on pensions to start Friday

A long-anticipated special legislative session will convene later this week in an effort to deliver relief for regional universities and quasi-governmental agencies strapped by surging pension costs, Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin announced Monday. Lawmakers will meet starting at 8 a.m. Friday at the state Capitol in Frankfort, the Republican governor's office said. An official proclamation listing the special session's agenda will be issued later this week, Bevin's office said in a news release. It takes at least five working...

US. Senate split over retirement savings bill

The House of Representatives passed the Secure Act, a bill that would create more opportunities for Americans to save for retirement, with overwhelming bipartisan consent in May. But the bill is stalled in the Senate. The legislation could die in the upper chamber if it is not passed by a floor vote, unanimous consent, as an updated Senate bill or attached to another bill that must pass (typically these are spending bills). In other words, the bill is not...