November 2019

01Nov

World’s Largest Pension Fund Sees Gain as Japan Stocks Rally

The world’s biggest pension fund posted a gain for a third consecutive quarter, with Japanese stocks providing the best return among assets amid a global shift to value shares in September. Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund returned 1.1%, or 1.8 trillion yen ($17 billion), in the quarter ended Sept. 30, with assets totaling 161.8 trillion yen, it said Friday in Tokyo. Domestic stocks were the fund’s best performing investment, gaining 3.3%, while foreign equities added 0.1%. The return was 1.2%...

November 1, 2019
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01Nov

How China and the World Reacted to Xi Jinping’s Blockchain Comments

China’s President, Xi Jinping, sent waves through the industry with his speech on blockchain technology last week.  The leader of the Communist Party of China reaffirmed the trend of the past five years with his keynote speech that welcomed the dawn of blockchain technology in the country. He told members of the party: “WE MUST TAKE THE BLOCKCHAIN AS AN IMPORTANT BREAKTHROUGH FOR INDEPENDENT INNOVATION OF CORE TECHNOLOGIES.” Many provinces across China had already been utilizing the technology behind cryptocurrencies but now Xi wants...

November 1, 2019
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October 2019

31Oct

US. MIT agrees to pay $18 million in suit over retirement plan fees

St. Louis law firm Schlichter Bogard & Denton has reached an $18.1 million settlement with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in a lawsuit over the university's 401(k) retirement plan. The firm, headed by Jerome Schlichter, sued the university in 2016 on behalf of employees and retirees. The suit accused MIT of paying excessive record-keeping fees to Fidelity Investments and failing to monitor the plan's investments. The lawsuit pointed out that Fidelity's chief executive was an MIT trustee, and that...

October 31, 2019
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30Oct

UK. The worst pensions firms for transfers that take up to 62 days to release cash

Meanwhile, the quickest time is offered by Aviva at just 12 days, according to research. Consolidator service PensionBee analysed almost 52,000 transfers by customers who joined the firm since 2016, with the sample size for each provider ranging from 141 to 7,914 cases. It found that apart from Mercer, the slowest pension providers were Now Pensions, taking an average of 61 days, while Capita took 45, Willis Towers Watson took 42, and Smart Pension took 36. Overall, the average...

October 30, 2019
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29Oct

Canada. Morneau Shepell releases the results of its Performance Universe of Pension Managers’ Pooled Funds

Morneau Shepell (TSX: MSI) has released the results of its Performance Universe of Pension Managers' Pooled Funds for the third quarter of 2019. According to the report, in the third quarter of 2019, diversified pooled fund managers posted a median return of 1.5 per cent before management fees. Since the beginning of the year, the return has been 12.8 per cent. "In general, markets posted positive returns in the third quarter, despite higher volatility. The FTSE Canada Universe Bond...

October 29, 2019
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21Oct

Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index 2019 (MMGPI)

Ageing populations continue to be a significant issue for many economies as we are living longer and fertility rates continue to decline. Pension systems are becoming more important than ever as households want to maintain their living standards throughout retirement. But how is this possible, especially within the economic environment of low interest rates and reduced economic growth? There are implications for employers, employees, governments, as well as the pension funds. Pension reform is being considered in many countries,...

October 21, 2019
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15Oct

U.S. pension funds took positions in blacklisted Chinese surveillance company

Some of the biggest public pensions funds in the United States have invested in one of the world’s largest purveyors of video surveillance systems that the U.S. government claims are used in wide-scale repression of the Muslim population of western China. Read also US. White House Focuses on China Stock Limits in Retirement Fund The Trump administration’s decision to put the company, Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co (002415.SZ), on a blacklist last week has prompted at least two of...

October 15, 2019
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15Oct

US. GM, Pension Funds, And The Temptations Of Big Pots Of Money

The UAW’s strike against General Motors has now entered into its fifth week, with no indication of a resolution soon, as the UAW pushes to increase wages of its lower-seniority workers and move more workers away from their temporary status and the company focuses on using its profits to make investments in U.S. factories. Earlier, in late September, various of the Democratic presidential candidates joined the picket lines to show their support for the strikers. And in the midst...

October 15, 2019
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11Oct

The Quest for Sustainability in Contingent Pension Plans

By Barry Gros, Barbara Sanders The types of pension plans offered to Canadian employees are changing. As membership in traditional defined-benefit pension plans declines, plans in which benefits are contingent on the financial status of the plan are becoming more common. Rather than placing all the risk on sponsors to deliver guaranteed benefits to members, these contingent pension plans require members to take on at least some of the risk that benefits may or may not meet expectations. At...

October 11, 2019
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09Oct

Assets of Romanian pension funds up 26% YOY at end-June

The total assets managed by private pension fund managers (mandatory and voluntary) reached RON 57.43 billion (EUR 12.13 billion) at the end of June, up almost 26% year-on-year, according to data released by the Financial Supervisory Authority (ASF). The ratio of private pensions assets to GDP was 5.80% at the end of June, up from 5.22% at the end of last year. “Private pension funds are important institutional investors in the economy, and the investments they made on the...

October 9, 2019
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