June 2020

Changes To Social Security Insurance In China

China has updated their social security insurance policies with some noteworthy changes. Jurisdiction China What's new? 1. Faster social security card application process The State Council and the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security will facilitate a faster application process for social security cards through the nationwide integrated online government service platform. Read also WeBank, Huawei and KPMG Share Insights on Fighting COVID – 19 with FinTech 2. Merging of Maternity Insurance with Basic Medical Insurance The State Council...

India. Govt may restrict foreign investment in pension funds

Amid LAC tension, the Finance Ministry has proposed restrictions on pension fund investments from any bordering country. Foreign investment in pension funds regulated by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority is capped at 49 per cent under the automatic route. According to a draft notification circulated for comments on Friday, “A government approval would be required for the investing entity or individual from any of the bordering countries, including China.” The restriction will be applicable from the date...

Lawmakers Offer Help to Japanese Banks Battling Fintech Firms

Japanese ruling-party lawmakers are looking to make it easier for banks to expand into different industries, a step that could help traditional lenders push back against tech rivals. The Liberal Democratic Party’s financial policy research panel wants to amend the banking law next year to relax limits on lenders’ lines of business as well as their investments in non-financial firms. The proposal, released last week, didn’t specify which areas banks might be allowed to enter. Japan’s government has been...

Japan Mulls Resubmitting Legislation to Raise Retirement Age of Civil Servants

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government will consider resubmitting legislation to raise the retirement age for civil servants, its top spokesman said on Wednesday, after public backlash prompted the withdrawal of draft legislation. During the parliamentary session that ended on Wednesday, the government abandoned its push to enact legislation that would raise prosecutors' retirement age to 65 from 63, and let the cabinet defer retirement of senior prosecutors for a further three years. Critics and others argued it would...

Nationwide anger as Iraq announces pension cuts

Iraq is facing its worst economic crisis since 2003, worsened by the global drop in oil prices and the coronavirus pandemic. Mustafa al-Kadhimi’s government has proposed austerity measures, including capping the amount and number of state salaries and pensions people can receive. Many people rely on pensions and reparations from the government. Al Jazeera's Simona Foltyn reports from Baghdad, Iraq. Read more @Aljazeera

IBM Trials Blockchain Platform For Primary Teachers ’ Pensions in Bangladesh

IBM has started an initiative to create a distributed ledger technology (DLT) based framework that will form the back bone of digital pension program for Bangladeshi primary school teachers. The PoC (Proof-of-Concept) consists of a permissioned network of teachers and other partakers backed by the IBM Blockchain Platform, with pension data loaded on the blockchain to guarantee unalterable data keeping and offer safety guarantees to teachers partaking in GBB (Grameen Bank of Bangladesh) government supervising IT policy in the...

A “New Deal” for Informal Workers in Asia

By Era Dabla-Norris, Changyong Rhee Full or partial lockdowns to curb the spread of COVID-19 are having crippling effects on businesses and workers across Asia, as elsewhere. Among the most vulnerable of the workers are the ones working in part-time and temporary jobs without social insurance, and in sectors of the economy that are neither taxed, nor regulated by any form of government. Known as informal workers, they are particularly vulnerable to dramatic collapses of income and loss...

May 2020

Allianz pension report 2020 the silver swan

By Allianz Even before the Covid-19 outbreak, societies were becoming more and more fragmented over several social fault lines: culture, education, wealth, place of residence. Many of these overlap: The cosmopolitan, well-educated, wealthy people live in (big) cities, whereas more conservative, low-skilled workers tend to live in the periphery. There is, however, one important social fault line that cuts through all these identities: the generation gap. With demographic and climate change (and now the coronavirus pandemic), the generational...

Golden Aging: Prospects for Healthy, Active and Prosperous Aging in Europe and Central Asia

By Maurizio Bussolo, Johannes Koettl & Emily Sinnott The Europe and Central Asia region has among the oldest populations in the world. Europe, in particular, is approaching the end of a demographic transition toward population stabilization, and Central Asia, although still younger, is following quickly. Aging in Europe and Central Asia is different from that in Western Europe and East Asia in that populations are aging, while people are not necessarily living longer. The rise in the average age is largely attributable to...

India. Lack of social security for women in informal economy needs to be addressed

It was in the middle of the second lockdown. Ayeshaben, a home-based garment worker suddenly experienced chest pain. Her son, Asif, a tailor, requested one of his customers to take his mother in his rickshaw to the hospital. Thankfully, Ayeshaben has been taking insurance cover with SEWA’s insurance cooperative, VimoSEWA, for the last 15 years. Her claim of Rs 5,000 was processed online after Asif sent all her documents via WhatsApp. There are millions of Ayeshabens in this country....