May 2020
22May

The Shifting Ground of Pension Design: Reflections on Risks and Reporting

By Robert D. Baldwin Debates about the relative merits of defined-benefit (DB) and defined-contribution (DC) pension plans have been a prominent part of pension discourse over the past forty years. The intensity of the debate has ebbed and flowed over the years but has been more intense in recent years as there has been a shift from DB to DC plans in Canada. This shift has left the remaining members of DB plans feeling threatened and, for many, the...

May 22, 2020
Aging, Articles, , , , ,
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April 2020

23Apr

UK. Coronavirus crisis hits occupational pension schemes

Members of generous final-salary workplace pension schemes could see their guaranteed benefits jeopardised by the Covid-19 pandemic. Many such schemes are in deficit: they lack the money to make good on all the pension promises made to employees . In the short term, the outlook has improved. The Pensions Regulator has now given employers longer to make up this shortfall since many firms are suffering from the pandemic. This will help employers squeezed by the virus. But...

April 23, 2020
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March 2020

09Mar

Mexico. ‘Unsustainable’: Mexico’s Pemex Buckling Under Crushing Pension Debt

Straining under a massive debt load and at risk of a ratings downgrade, Mexican state oil company Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) was hit with a record jump in its pension liabilities last year as more workers retired on generous benefits. Pemex [PEMX.UL] is fighting to avoid having its bonds cut to "junk" or speculative grade, which would put pressure on Mexico's sovereign rating and deal a heavy blow to populist President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who has vowed to revive it. Read...

March 9, 2020
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05Mar

UK. Record Numbers Saving into Workplace Pensions

More than three-quarters of British employees are now members of a workplace pension scheme, according to new figures from the Office for National Statistics. And for the first time, occupational defined contribution (DC) pensions have overtaken all other types of pension, including defined benefit (DB) or final salary schemes. The proportion of employees in a workplace pension hit 77%, the highest since comparable records began in 1997 – it marks a huge advance on the 47% in these schemes...

March 5, 2020
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January 2020

15Jan

United Arab Emirates: The Introduction Of The DIFC Employee Workplace Savings Plan And Other Qualifying Schemes

the DIFC Authority is replacing the existing arrangement of statutory end of service gratuity, payable on termination of employment, with a defined contribution savings scheme, in which contributions are made monthly into a scheme (the Qualifying Scheme). The Qualifying Scheme which is being supported by the DIFC Authority is the DIFC Employee Workplace Savings plan (DEWS). However, employers may choose to use a Qualifying Alternative Scheme (QAS). The laws implementing the new arrangements, through amendments to DIFC Law No....

January 15, 2020
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November 2019

11Nov

Bank of Estonia: Pension reform to bring pressure for tax increase with it

The Bank of Estonia recommends not making the second pillar of Estonia's pension system voluntary, as that may result in lower old-age pensions in the future and bring pressure to raise taxes in the future with it. The Ministry of Finance sent the pension reform bill that would make the second pillar optional for an interministerial round of approvals last Wednesday. Earlier this fall, the Bank of Estonia drew up an impact analysis of changes to the system of...

November 11, 2019
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October 2019

25Oct

Social Pensions and Market Values: A Conflict?

By Quentin Detienne, Elmar Schmidt Social occupational pension schemes, i.e. compulsory pension schemes that are the result of collective bargaining, fulfil an important social function. At the same time, they seem to conflict with some fundamental single market tenets, such as the European Union (EU) Single Market’s four fundamental freedoms and competition law principles. In this respect, occupational pension schemes in the Member States seem to embody the inherent tensions contained within the EU’s social market economy: a clash...

October 25, 2019
Articles, Pension design, Sustainability, ,
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May 2019

04May

Averting the Multiemployer Pension Solvency Crisis

By Charles Blahous (Mercatus Center at George Mason University)By Mercatus Research Paper The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) multiemployer pension insurance program faces projected insolvency, driven by systemic underfunding of multiemployer pension plans. To address this brewing crisis, Congress has established a joint select committee to develop multiemployer pension reforms. Primary causes of the crisis include lax funding rules and inaccurate valuations of pension assets and liabilities. Explanations frequently offered for underfunding, such as financial market downturns...

May 4, 2019
Adequacy, Articles, System Sustainability, ,
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June 2018

16Jun

Third Party Administration of Insurance & Pension Revenues in Germany: Product Revenues in Germany

By Editorial DataGroup Europe The Third Party Administration of Insurance & Pension Revenues Germany eBook provides 14 years Historic and Forecast data on the market for each of the 22 Products / Services covered. The Products / Services covered (Third party administration of insurance & pension Lines) are classified by the 5-Digit NAICS Product Codes and each Product and Services is then further defined and analysed by each 6 to 10-Digit NAICS Product Codes. In addition full Financial Data (188...

June 16, 2018
Books, Management, Pension design, ,
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March 2018

05Mar

Disclosure of costs, charges and investments in DC occupational pensions

UK Department for Work and Pensions This paper forms the Government’s response to a consultation on the draft Occupational Pension Schemes (Administration and Disclosure) (Amendment) Regulations 2018, which ran from the 26 October 2017 to 7 December 2017. The draft Regulations were designed to: introduce requirements for certain occupational schemes offering money purchase benefits to publish charge and transaction cost information, disclose this to members and others, and tell members where to find it; and introduce requirements for the same...

March 5, 2018
Articles, Pension design, Regulation, Savings, , ,
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