December 2020

Canada’s Largest Pension Says Inflation Could Rise in Rebound

By Paula Sambo Canada’s largest pension fund says policy measures across the globe to address the Covid-19 pandemic could fuel inflation after years of under-inflation while also spurring a rebound in employment and business investment. “We’re keeping an eye on this because central banks have adjusted frameworks,” Mark Machin, chief executive officer of Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, said in an interview Tuesday. “There is also the risk of a wall of money in savings accounts -- $13 trillion...

UN organizations launch new initiative to improve the lives of older people

The United Nations General Assembly today declared 2021-2030 the Decade of Healthy Ageing. "Today's announcement of the UN Decade of Healthy Ageing sends a clear signal that it is only by working as one, within the United Nations system and with governments, civil society and the private sector, that we will be able to not only add years to life, but also life to years," said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization, in response to...

Chile’s Great Pension Raid

By Andrés Velasco Because the policies they produce are so ludicrous, populist cycles eventually crash against reality and come to an end. Sadly, for too many Chileans, the crash may come when they reach old age with no retirement savings. How should families pay for the costs of the pandemic? The conservative government’s finance minister proposes that the state should help.Thanks but no thanks, retort members of the country’s congress. Families can use their own accumulated pension savings, and the...

Malta. Three in ten pensioners at risk of poverty

The proportion of pensioners at risk of living in poverty in Malta is increasing year on year, reaching 29.1 per cent of over 65s last year. And older women are more likely to teeter on the brink of poverty due to having to rely solely on their husband's pension. While all other age groups have seen a reduction in poverty since 2013, those aged over 65 have seen an increase. The latest details were revealed in an evaluation of...

South Africa. 1 600 municipal employees’ pensions have lapsed due to ‘non-payment of pension fund contributions’

Several municipalities across the country have defaulted on paying workers' pension contributions to their respective pension funds. Finance Minister Tito Mboweni said municipalities in the Free State, North West and Northern Cape were mostly affected by the default in pension fund contributions. The DA said it would lay charges against the involved municipal officials. While governance failures have all but decimated some of the country's poorest municipalities, errant officials have not been paying millions in employer contributions to workers'...

COVID-19 crisis, a wake-up call on social protection for workers

The need for universal social protection in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic has been underlined at a virtual conference of trade union leaders from national trade union confederations across continents. Workers’ representatives at the Fourth meeting of the “Social Protection, Freedom and Justice for Workers Network” on 9 December, explained how their organizations’ have contributed to the formulation of national social protection responses to the COVID-19 crisis. They discussed trade union advocacy strategies for social protection at the...

Time for U.S. to address savings crisis for workers

U.S. president-elect Joe Biden has sketched out ambitious plans to reinvigorate the pandemic-battered economy. But without addressing a festering savings crisis, efforts to revitalize the middle class are doomed to fail. The U.S. savings and retirement system is broken, and desperately needs an overhaul to give Americans an opportunity to build lifetime financial resilience. The economic ravages of a pandemic mean that a national conversation in the U.S. on change is imperative, starting with ways to move towards more universal...

FinTech In The Time Of COVID: What Financial Services Companies Need To Know

Since the beginning of the COVID pandemic in early 2020, consumers and the business community have had to navigate new realities. The pandemic has dramatically changed the ways in which we interact, presenting challenges that were rarely, if ever, previously contemplated. Some industries have been affected profoundly, while others are naturally better suited to withstand the evolving pandemic landscape. Financial technology (FinTech) companies are a good example of an industry well positioned to thrive in this environment. Given the...

US. 4 Public Pension Funding Strategies Besides Employer Contributions

Maybe it’s time for pension plans to explore other funding strategies aside from public employer contributions. Plan sponsors typically use the annual required contribution (ARC) or the actuarially determined employer contribution (ADEC) to meet public pension liabilities. But a number of states have found success experimenting with lesser-known methods. It could be useful for other public retirement programs to consider these strategies, according to a report released this week from the National Institute on Retirement Security. While resilient...

Aging China Must Work Longer and Invest Smarter

China is getting older. That means the Chinese people will have to work longer. But deeper reforms will also be necessary to ensure income growth doesn’t stagnate. Read also Asset management CEO arrested in Taiwan pension fund scandal The world’s most populous country has begun aging rapidly over the past decade, but the pace is going to pick up even more as tens of millions reach retirement age. The working population—people between the ages of 15 and 59—will drop by...