September 2021

Study: As a population gets older, automation accelerates

You might think robots and other forms of workplace automation gain traction due to intrinsic advances in technology — that innovations naturally find their way into the economy. But a study co-authored by an MIT professor tells a different story: Robots are more widely adopted where populations become notably older, filling the gaps in an aging industrial work force. “Demographic change — aging — is one of the most important factors leading to the adoption of robotics and other automation...

UK. Dashboard will not have accurate DB quotations

The Society of Pension Professionals has warned pension dashboards will have to provide illustrative figures to defined benefit members, as it will not be possible to have accurate quotations due to the complexity of current benefit structures. In a report published today (September 13), the industry body made a series of recommendations to the Department of Work and Pensions and the Pensions Dashboard Programme on how estimated retirement income calculations should be approached from the beginning of the project's rollout. Since...

May 2021

Pension-Fund Investment in Forestry

By Clark S. Binkley, Fiona Stewart and Samantha Power A forestry investment can include land suitable for growing trees, the trees themselves, or both. The trees can be part of a natural forest or one that has been established artificially by seeding or planting. Natural forest management typically has lower operating costs than plantation forests, but also a lower growth rate. Plantation forests are typically, but not always monocultures. Forestry has long provided opportunities for institutional investors – but the scope...

March 2021

New Zealand. How KiwiSaver could be used to supercharge innovation

KiwiSaver has grown tremendously since it launched in 2007, but it is pretty vanilla. Most investments are lazily thrown into listed stocks and bonds – the scheme is designed that way. We could be using some of this money to invest in such alternatives as startups, scaling successful businesses to go international, and infrastructure that we need, as is done routinely internationally. KiwiSaver is big enough and old enough to ask how we can unleash the power of capital towards the...

February 2021

India. Will WhatsApp Thrive In Micro-Pension Space, A Road Not Taken By Indian Fintech?

WhatsApp is on its way to rolling out micro-pension products for the Indian masses In spite of a robust fintech ecosystem, no startup has attempted to cater to an underserved Indian market WhatsApp could be facing tough challenges as the low-income population lacks financial awareness and the habit of saving When messaging giant WhatsApp announced its foray into micro-pension products in December 2020, it turned out to be a first-of-its-kind initiative in the Indian fintech space. This is surprising,...

October 2020

New Finance: In Search for Analytical Framework

By Jan Monkiewicz Since the beginning of the century, modern financial systems have been experiencing a period of dynamic change. These changes have caused the uniform fabric on which the systems were based for a long time to become eroded and a multitude of alternative solutions to appear in their place. The existing systems are becoming increasingly heterogeneous and increasingly less transparent. In addition to the traditional financial system based on highly regulated financial intermediaries with a legal monopoly,...

AI Human Impact: Toward a Model for Ethical Investing in AI-Intensive Companies

By James Brusseau Does AI conform to humans, or will we conform to AI? An ethical evaluation of AI-intensive companies will allow investors to knowledgeably participate in the decision. The evaluation is built from nine performance indicators that can be analyzed and scored to reflect a technology’s human-centering. When summed, the scores convert into objective investment guidance. The strategy of incorporating ethics into financial decisions will be recognizable to participants in environmental, social, and governance investing, however, this paper...

UK. PensionBee and Plaid team up to call for ‘open pensions’

The two fintechs are calling on the FCA to speed up the introduction of Open Finance to help people view their pensions all in one place. Digital pension provider PensionBee and financial API provider Plaid have joined forces to push for an open finance standard within the pension industry. In a report published by the pair yesterday, Plaid and PensionBee are calling for ‘open pensions’ to be made standard, something which they claim will “improve financial decisions”...

September 2020

Digital financial services

By World Bank Access to affordable financial services is critical for poverty reduction and economic growth. Countries with deeper, more developed financial systems enjoy higher economic growth and larger reductions in poverty and income inequality. Access to financial services also increases opportunities and resilience for the poor, particularly women. Despite this, 65 percent of adults in the world’s poorest economies lack access to even the most basic transaction account that would allow them to send and receive...

May 2020

Trouble with pensions is a lack of innovation

By Steve Watson Recent research found that two thirds of employers think that pensions are far too complicated and providers are not innovating enough to offer new and progressive products. The research, which looked at the challenges employees face when it comes to pensions, found that almost 45% of employers felt that ensuring all employees have adequate funds when they retire was a huge challenge. While auto enrolment has made a huge difference to the numbers of employees saving into...