August 2018

07Aug

Australia. Two regulators are enough – perhaps more than enough

It is tempting to join the media pile-on about the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority’s apparent lack of action on underperforming superannuation funds, but in terms of true legal powers, the regulator appears to have more bark than bite. This point will probably loom large in the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry’s fifth round of hearings. This latest round began yesterday and will put the focus on superannuation for a fortnight. We know APRA and the...

August 7, 2018
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July 2018

23Jul

Migration helps balance our ageing population – we don’t need a moratorium

Australia’s population is set to reach 25 million in the coming weeks. This is much earlier than expected. Eighteen years ago, projections estimated Australia’s population wouldn’t get to 25 million until 2041. Western Australian Liberal Senator Dean Smith last week proposed a moratorium on immigration to give Australia some time to “breathe” and take stock. Claiming concerns over planning and infrastructure failing to meet population needs, Smith signalled Australia was unprepared, having relied on inaccurate population projections. Immigration is often targeted...

July 23, 2018
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09Jul

Financial stability implications of a prolonged period of low interest rates

From  Committee on the Global Financial System The decade following the Great Financial Crisis (GFC) has been marked by historically low interest rates. An environment characterised by "low-for-long" interest rates may dampen the profitability and strength of financial firms and thus become a source of vulnerability for the financial system. In addition, low rates could change firms' incentives to take risks, which could engender additional financial sector vulnerabilities. This report identifies and provides evidence for the channels through which a "low-for-long"...

July 9, 2018
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June 2018

04Jun

Management and Regulation of Pension Schemes: Australia a Cautionary Tale (Routledge Research in Finance and Banking Law)

By Nicholas Morris Perhaps the greatest long-term challenge facing modern economies is how to pay for the living expenses and care costs of the elderly. Following policy decisions made in Australia in the 1990s, a substantial part of the pension requirements of the next cohort of retirees will be met from savings accumulated during working years. The effective management of these savings is crucial. If they are invested wisely, the assets available to fund pensions and care will grow; if...

June 4, 2018
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May 2018

16May

The pensioners retiring overseas because they can’t afford Australia

On a cobbled street in the south of Spain, Norah Ohrt lives like a typical Andalusian in a little white house with red flowers blooming from the windows. It's a world away from what her life would be like if she was still living in Australia. The 71-year-old former gallery owner says that in Perth she'd be living in state housing, surviving "on the smell of an oily rag on the Australian pension". With property prices and cost of living on...

May 16, 2018
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December 2017

04Dec

AustralianSuper to quit big tobacco in $900m blow for Philip Morris, British American Tobacco

AustralianSuper is planning to sell out of tobacco merchants including heavyweights Philip Morris and British American Tobacco over the next two years. It will be the biggest divestment of tobacco stocks yet by an Australian super fund. The move comes after wealth manager AMP announced in March that its investment house, AMP Capital, was dumping $440 million worth of investments tied to the tobacco sector. AMP made that move as it overhauled its guidelines for investing ethically. AustralianSuper chief Ian Silk has told...

December 4, 2017
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November 2017

24Nov

Australia. Criminals rorting millions from welfare system from behind bars

More than 20,000 jailed criminals have been busted illegally claiming a total of more than $16.5 million in taxpayer-funded benefits. The Herald Sun can reveal the federal government has been conducting sweeps of the nation’s prisons over the past four years to identify those criminals receiving benefits behind bars. It already costs taxpayers $110,000 to keep one prisoner locked up for a year. While inside, they are not allowed to receive welfare payments — but many fail to inform Centrelink that they have...

November 24, 2017
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03Nov

OECD: Australian retirement most exposed to share risk but returns not stellar

Australian superannuation funds have a much higher exposure to volatile share markets than almost any comparable country without earning higher returns, according to new figures. The OECD’s annual Pension Markets in Focus report has found that Australia’s pension (superannuation) system had 51 per cent of its assets in shares in June 2016, more than twice the weighting of Canada, with 23 per cent. The US had 31 per cent, the UK 14 per cent and Denmark 22 per cent. Conversely, Australian pension...

November 3, 2017
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October 2017

17Oct

Australia’s ANZ Sells Pension Business to IOOF for $766 Million

Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd has sold its pension unit to IOOF Holdings for A$975 million ($766 million), joining the rush of Australian banks quitting non-core and scandal-hit divisions to boost capital. The deal fell short of a total exit of ANZ's insurance and wealth management operations which the bank had flagged a year earlier, and which had been expected to fetch about A$4 billion. But Atlas Funds Management chief investment officer David Hugh, who owns ANZ shares, said...

October 17, 2017
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