August 2021

World’s Largest Pension Fund GPIF Now Holds Record $1.75 Trillion in Assets

Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund posted a fifth consecutive quarterly gain in its investments as returns from overseas assets helped make up for losses on domestic equities. Read also Nigeria. N12trn pension assets investment sidelines infrastructure The world’s biggest pension fund gained 2.7% for the quarter ended in June, boosting assets under management by 4.98 trillion yen ($45.4 billion) to a record 191.6 trillion yen, it announced on Friday. Overseas stocks were its best-performing investment, returning 8.6%, while domestic shares lost...

Nigeria. N12trn pension assets investment sidelines infrastructure

Federal Government’s dream of ramping up pension assets for investments into infrastructure development seems floundering as most recent report shows a stagnation in funds allocation to the sector. Meanwhile the bulk of the over N12trillion assets are going into Federal Government Bond borrowing instrument which are used for government recurrent expenditure. At the backdrop of the quest to address the huge infrastructure gap in the country, the pension policy had envisaged about 15 percent of the total pension asset would be...

Chile. Asociación de AFP dice que cuarto retiro dejaría a 43% de afiliados sin fondos: 51% de las mujeres quedarían en cero

De cara a la discusión de un cuarto retiro del 10% de los fondos previsionales, la asociación de Aseguradoras de Fondos de Pensiones (AFP) dio a conocer un estudio que analiza los posibles escenarios tras la eventual aprobación de la reforma constitucional en el Congreso. Lo anterior, considerando los otros tres retiros de las AFP que ya se han concretado y que, según estiman, provocaron que un 20% de los afiliados no dispongan de ahorros en sus cuentas individuales. “Ese...

US. Pandemic not stopping workers from contributing to retirement plans

An overwhelming majority of U.S. workers are still saving for retirement despite the adverse economic, health and employment impact of the coronavirus pandemic, the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies said Thursday. Eighty-two percent of workers are saving for retirement through a 401(k) or similar retirement plan and/or outside the workplace, the center reported. "Given the magnitude of the challenges workers have faced during the pandemic, it is truly remarkable that they have maintained focus on their future retirement," Catherine Collinson, CEO...

Uganda allows early, partial pension withdrawals to cushion economy

Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni has agreed to legislation allowing some workers early access to 20% of their savings held by the state pension fund, to help them absorb the economic blow from the COVID-19 pandemic, he said. Consumers in the East African nation have been hit hard by the impact of the pandemic, forcing some of them to demand that the legislature allows them to access part of their retirement savings. Read also 1 in 3 Singaporeans are worried about retirement...

Chile. La esencia del retiro programado y la importancia de mantener el ahorro en el largo plazo

Hoy se habla mucho de la rentabilidad de los fondos E y D. La mala rentabilidad nos tiene a todos preocupados, porque no solo sólo afecta nuestros ahorros previsionales sino que a toda la industria de fondos mutuos de renta fija nacional. Algunos años atrás la rentabilidad de los fondos más conservadores fue muy sobresaliente, pero fue en una época de disminución de la tasa de interés de política monetaria anunciada permanentemente por el Banco Central. Otros años, gracias a...

UK pension funds urged to back investment ‘big bang’

Boris Johnson has called on British pension funds to plough more retirement savers’ cash into UK assets to spark an “investment big bang” to support the economic recovery. In a letter to the investment industry, the prime minister and chancellor Rishi Sunak said UK institutional investors needed to “seize the moment” and use their “hundreds of billions of pounds” to back assets that often carry a longer term payback such as infrastructure, which includes bridges, roads and wind farms. Read also...

US. Government to pilot online retirement application

By Jessie Bur Federal employees planning to retire may soon have the option to complete the requirements using an online system, rather than through the paper format most widely used across the U.S. government. Office of Personnel Management Director Kiran Ahuja told reporters on an Aug. 4 call that the agency will pilot an online retirement application system to address some short-term problems with the federal retirement system, namely slow processing times. Modernization of the federal retirement system has been a central...

Impacto de las acciones de mitigación del COVID-19 en la informalidad laboral rural en Colombia

Por Héctor Alberto Botello Peñaloza & Isaac Guerrero Rincón El coronavirus ha llegado a ser un reto para los gobiernos del mundo tanto en el aspecto de salubridad como económico. Las cuarentenas, el cierre de las empresas, el distanciamiento social y otras políticas amenazan el crecimiento económico y del empleo. El presente documento busca analizar la evolución de la informalidad laboral en el sector rural colombiano en el periodo antes y después de la puesta en marcha de las políticas...

US. Lockheed Martin offloads $4.9 billion in pension liabilities

Lockheed Martin Corp., Bethesda, Md., purchased group annuity contracts from Athene Holding Ltd. to transfer about $4.9 billion in U.S. pension plan liabilities. The purchase completed Tuesday will transfer the benefit-paying responsibilities for about 18,000 U.S. retirees and beneficiaries to Athene's wholly owned subsidiaries Athene Annuity and Life Co. and Athene Annuity & Life Assurance Company of New York, a news release from the aerospace and defense company said Tuesday. The Athene subsidiaries will begin paying benefits to the retirees and...