January 2023
25Jan

Ireland. Employers call for rethink on contributions to mandatory workplace pension

Employers’ group Ibec is calling for changes to planned legislation that will put mandatory workplace pensions in place. Contribution levels to the proposed auto-enrolment pension scheme should be looked at again, with competitiveness and affordability reviews completed before contributions are increased from their entry level, Ibec executive Fergal O’Brien will tell an Oireachtas committee on Wednesday. The scheme foresees employers and workers each putting 1.5 per cent of the employee’s gross salary into the scheme at the outset, with the figure...

January 25, 2023
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13Jan

US. The Value of Corporate Pension Assets Fell Dramatically. Here’s Why That Doesn’t Matter

Corporate pension funds had a boring year — if the only measure you look at is funded status. After all, according to WTW data published recently, funded status — the amount a pension has on hand to meet obligations — stayed flat year-over-year at 95 percent. Goldman Sachs data on corporate plans, meanwhile, estimates that funded status increased, from 98 percent in 2021 to 100 percent in 2022. But these numbers obfuscate the level of volatility that corporate plan investors faced...

January 13, 2023
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04Jan

U.S. corporate pension funding holds steady at 95% despite market volatility

  U.S. corporate pension plan funding ratios remained steady in 2022 despite significant market volatility, according to a new analysis from Willis Towers Watson. The analysis, which examined pension plan data from 356 Fortune 1000 companies, estimated their aggregate funding ratio to be 95% at the end of 2022, the same as a year earlier. According to the analysis, Willis Towers Watson estimated that the pension plans finished 2022 with $1.22 trillion in assets, down 26% from $1.65 trillion a year earlier,...

January 4, 2023
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December 2022
27Dec

Germany. Companies Introduce Social Partner Model For Pensions

At first glance, the interest is extremely low: Of the 1,900 companies that the Federal Chemical Employers’ Association (BAVC) wrote to, only 50 had decided in favor of the new “Nahles pension” by the beginning of December. A rate of 2.6 percent. Nevertheless, Klaus-Peter Stiller, general manager of the association, is anything but disappointed. After all, the companies currently have other concerns in the energy crisis than adjusting their pension systems. “In this respect, the 50 companies that have...

December 27, 2022
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16Dec

UK. British Airways signs agreement under New Airways Pension Scheme

British Airways has signed an agreement with the trustee of its New Airways Pension Scheme (NAPS) on the scheme's triennial valuation, the airline's owner IAG said on Thursday. The valuation, based on the scheme's funding position as of March 31, 2021, shows an agreed technical provisions deficit of 1.65 billion pounds ($2.01 billion), compared with a deficit of 2.4 billion pounds as of March 31, 2018. Under the terms of the agreement, British Airways will not pay a dividend in 2022...

December 16, 2022
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09Dec

U.S. corporate pension plans’ funding ratios remained over or near 100% in November

U.S. corporate pension plans' funding ratios remained over or near 100% in November, but four reports said ratios dropped slightly because rising discount rates offset strong investment returns for the period. The estimated funding ratio of the 100 largest U.S. corporate pension funds fell to 111.2% as of Nov. 30, down from 113.3% as of Oct. 31, according to the latest Milliman 100 Pension Funding index. The slight dip was driven by the discount rate decreasing to 5.16% as of Nov....

December 9, 2022
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November 2022
15Nov

U.S. Pension Funding Ratios Continue to Increase

Better equity performance and higher interest rates in October contribute to pensions nearing full funding. Aon’s Pension Risk Tracker in October reached its highest funded status level since its’ inception in 2011, as the aggregate pension funded status of S&P 500 companies increased to 97.2%. from 93.8% in September. Aon reports that pension asset returned 0.8% in October. The Aon report was one of several, released since the end of October, that showed improvements. The month-end 10-yr Treasury rate increased 27 basis...

November 15, 2022
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October 2022
13Oct

US. Funding Status of Pensions Increases Marginally Despite Equity Market Downturn

Corporate pension funding ratio improves to best rate of the year in September despite 2022’s worst month of market losses Rising rates in September contributed to higher overall funded ratio for corporate pension funds. Equities continued their year-long slump with the Nasdaq trading down over 10% and S&P 500 trading down 9.6% on the month. The dynamic led to at least two pension consultants finding that U.S. corporate pension funding levels moved above 100% in September as an increase in the...

October 13, 2022
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11Oct

Ireland. Government Pushes Ahead With Pension Auto Enrolment

The government has approved the details of its new pension auto-enrolment scheme in what Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys described as a "generational reform" of the Irish pensions system. The General Scheme of the Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System has now been referred to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection for pre-legislative scrutiny. If passed into law, the scheme will require workers to pay into a voluntary workplace pension scheme, co-funded by their employer and the state on an...

October 11, 2022
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10Oct

Abu Dhabi Pension Agency: Employers are obligated to register citizens within 10 working days of their joining the service

By The Bharat The Abu Dhabi Pension Fund has called on the employers registered with it not to delay in registering the new employees who have joined them. He stressed that registering and subscribing to the fund on behalf of citizens working in the public and private sectors is a mandatory procedure for all employers that have their headquarters in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, within the framework of complying with the requirements of the fund and the retirement law...

October 10, 2022
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