May 2021
26May

Cómo los Reguladores utilizan Datos Desagregados por Sexo y la RegTech para Mejorar la Inclusión Financiera (How Regulators Use Sex-Disaggregated Data and RegTech to Enhance Financial Inclusion)

Por Toronto Centre La inclusión financiera de las mujeres aporta beneficios más que proporcionales a sus familias y al desarrollo económico, pero en muchos países persiste una brecha de género en el acceso al crédito. Los datos desagregados ​​por sexo (DDS) son clave para monitorear y abordar este problema. Este estudio examina el papel que los reguladores de servicios financieros pueden desempeñar en los esfuerzos para abordar la inclusión financiera de las mujeres: cómo están usando, o podrían usar los DDS...

May 26, 2021
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20May

African Demographics Changing Rapidly, Forcing To Re-Think Pensions

Africa has long been known for its youthful population, and while the continent will continue to have the largest youth cohort in the world, they’ll live longer than their forebearers, according to the latest Bright Africa pensions research from RisCura, a global investment firm. Read also Investing in an Ageing Population The research shows that longevity expectations have changed dramatically, thanks to better nutrition, medical advances and overall improvements in the general standard of living. Read also Shock retirement numbers for South...

May 20, 2021
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06May

Does it Matter to be Informal? Type of employment and political opinions in the MENA region

By Anil Duman Informal activities are highly persistent in developing countries, and their economic effects are widely studied in the literature. Yet, political consequences of informality are relatively an understudied topic and big chunk of the existing work does not offer systematic examination of how informal sector participation shape preferences and attitudes. Our paper contributes to the literature by focusing on Arab countries that have very stable and large size of informal sectors in the world. Additionally, we take into...

May 6, 2021
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April 2021
08Apr

Pension systems in east Africa a deep dive

By World Bank Group Although the populations of the countries in East Africa are still young, there is a growing awareness among policy makers that they too will face the interlocking challenges of demographics and urbanization. The lesson learned from other regions is that policies need to be put in place now to ensure that pension systems are robust and affordable. So too, pension savings should be used to fund economic growth and development. Otherwise, we risk the fate of...

April 8, 2021
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March 2021
29Mar

South African retirement fund guidelines are changing – how will this affect you?

South African retirement savings are governed by the Pensions Fund Act. Within this act, Regulation 28 lays out the maximum percentage of a fund that can be invested in different asset classes. For example, only 30% is permitted to be invested offshore. This aims to force diversification and prevent savers from keeping all their eggs in one asset basket. WHAT ARE THE PROPOSED REGULATION 28 CHANGES? The changes mean to make it easier for funds to invest in infrastructure and provide a way...

March 29, 2021
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25Mar

Pensions savings can fund Africa eco-plans

According to the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN), the fastest-growing and largest category of impact investing assets under management by investment source is from pension funds and insurance companies. Pension funds that are putting money in impact investing are from the developed world and very little is happening in terms of the investments of the African pension funds. In many places, pension funds are riding on DFIs and other fund managers to make investments especially in developing countries including Africa....

March 25, 2021
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December 2020

17Dec

Bahrain chosen to launch global OECD Pensions Report for MENA region

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) will be launching its seminal OECD Pensions Outlook Report 2020 in the MENA region for the first time, from the Kingdom of Bahrain. Read also South Africa. 1 600 municipal employees’ pensions have lapsed due to ‘non-payment of pension fund contributions’ The global organization which celebrates its 60th anniversary this week is considered to be the world’s largest think-tank and research centre on pensions. Last week, the OECD Secretary-General, Angel Gurría, virtually launched...

December 17, 2020
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09Dec

Pension funds increasingly require ESG compliance; here’s why they should look to Africa

The Scottish Widows Fund recently announced that it will dump £440m of company holdings that fail its Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) tests. Being one of the most far-reaching exclusions policies adopted by a major UK pensions provider to date, it’s important to take note of this action. And as pension funds and asset managers across the world face increasing pressure to protect client portfolios from the risks of climate change, others will follow. Read also South Africa. Sustainability...

December 9, 2020
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03Dec

An Assessment of Affordability and Impact of a Social Old Age Pension in Rwanda

By Jean Bosco Mbarute In low-income countries and middle-income countries, the coverage of contributory pension scheme is low and even stagnant. At the same time, older people are less able to rely on family and community support as a result of growing urbanization and migration. Then low-income workers and the poor simply cannot save enough to prepare for their old age. As a remedy, many countries are considering or have already implemented various forms of retirement income transfers aiming...

December 3, 2020
Articles, Pension design, System Sustainability, , , , ,
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November 2020

27Nov

Striving for Better Jobs: The Challenge of Informality in the Middle East and North Africa

By Roberta Gatti, Diego F Angel-Urdinola, Joana Silva, András Bodor While economic growth has been sustained for a number of years in many countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, this has not resulted in the creation of an adequate number of jobs and has succeeded, at best, in generating low-quality, informal jobs. While there is a great deal of heterogeneity across countries, informality in MENA is widespread, and some countries in the region are...

November 27, 2020
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