November 2025

Mexico. Retirement Savings Consolidate Their Weight in the Economy: They Now Amount to 22% of GDP

The AmAfore 2025 meeting will take place on November 12 and 13, and its program confirms the growing prominence of retirement savings in the global conversation on investments, private credit, and infrastructure. With the participation of international leaders such as Scott Kleinman (Apollo), Michael Rees (Blue Owl), Michael Smith (Ares Credit Group), and Kirk Smith (GTCR), the event highlights Mexico’s role as a bridge between local institutional capital and major global asset managers. The presence of the AFOREs, along with Banxico, Hacienda, and CONSAR, reflects the interest in strengthening the sophistication...

Hidden in Plain Sight: Physical Risk in Asset Owners’ Portfolios

By Xinxin Wang, Jascha Lehmann, Russ Bowdrey & Lisa Eichler Corporate asset locations are a critical source of financial-risk intelligence for investors. More so when coupled with powerful overlays related to physical climate risk. MSCI’s new study, conducted in collaboration with Swiss Re Risk Data Solutions, analyzed more than 11,000 companies and 500,000 physical assets underpinning the listed-equity portfolios of 18 leading asset owners, representing USD 4 trillion in AUM. Location isn’t just geography, it’s financial risk exposed. The location of companies’...

US. Federal Guarantees Should Continue After Pension Risk Transfers

Nationally recognized ERISA attorneys Kevin O'Brien and Spencer Walters of Ivins, Phillips & Barker (IPB) have released a new white paper, "The Forgotten Promise: Why PBGC Retirement Benefit Guarantees Should Continue After Pension Risk Transfer Transactions."  Their paper challenges the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation's decades-old position that retirees lose federal protection once pensions are converted to annuities – a stance the authors argue contradicts the statute, legislative history, and the PBGC's own original interpretation. The paper traces how, in 1981, the PBGC took the...

Pension funds risk 33 per cent return loss from failed climate transition: Ortec

A failed global transition to a low-carbon economy could slash pension fund returns by as much as 33 per cent in the next 25 years, according to new modeling by Ortec Finance. In the face of rising physical and transition risks tied to climate change, Ortec Finance’s managing director of climate scenarios and sustainability, Maurits van Joolingen, says the modeling captures the profound uncertainty surrounding climate change, from technology deployment to geopolitical responses, but the risks to long-term portfolio performance...

Over half of global pension holdings already exposed to physical risk

Over half (55 per cent) of global pension fund holdings are exposed to significant and active physical risks, research from MSCI and Swiss Re has found, with asset owners urged to take action now to shift from being exposed to being prepared. The survey, which analysed the portfolios of 18 of the world’s largest asset owners, found that by value, this equals 25 per cent of total equity holdings of those surveyed, with small- and mid-cap companies particularly exposed. The report...

October 2025

Ghana. SSNIT is financially viable despite past challenges – Director

Director-General of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), Kwesi Afreh Biney, says his outfit is financially viable despite past challenges. According to him, the entity managing contributors’ funds pays over 257,000 pensioners each month. Mr. Biney explained that while SSNIT, as an institution, had faced hurdles in the past, it has also seized opportunities to strengthen its operations, thus making the Trust financially viable and sustainable. Speaking in an interview on Accra-based Citi FM on Thursday, October 30, ahead of...

Mexico’s Retirement Savings Grow, Inclusion Gaps Persist

Mexico has experienced a significant shift toward formal savings and greater use of digital financial tools. Between 2021 and 2024, the share of adults with a retirement account rose from 35% to 42%, while adoption of online savings accounts and digital payment solutions tripled, according to the latest joint study by México, ¿Cómo Vamos? and Vanguard. This reflects broader progress in financial inclusion, as the share of adults with at least one formal financial product (savings account, credit, insurance, or AFORE)...

International Pension Plan Survey 2025

By WTW Employers expand plan eligibility and enhance inclusivity to become more responsive to employee needs. International Pension Plans (IPPs) and International Savings Plans (ISPs) were originally used by multinational employers to provide retirement or savings benefits to employees who may not be eligible for home country retirement plans or where local (host) solutions are unavailable or unsuitable. Today, they have evolved beyond their traditional expatriate focus to include a wider range of employees including local employees, especially in regions...

Failed low-carbon transition could wipe 33% off pension fund returns

The immediate costs of a low-carbon economy transition are significantly outweighed by the costs of continued inaction, research from Ortec Finance has found, estimating that a failed low-carbon transition could wipe up to 33 per cent off pension fund returns worldwide by 2050. As part of its analysis, Ortec Finance applied its proprietary 2025 climate scenarios to the investment portfolios of 180 pension funds across the six largest global pension systems, revealing the consequences of further delaying the net-zero transition. This...

US. Options for Overfunded Pension Plans

You’ve done a good job making sure that the pension plan is fully funded. So good, in fact, that you — and the plan — are overachievers and the plan is fully funded and then some. And THAT surplus spells…opportunity. The Grist Funding of pension plans generally has been on an upward trajectory for a number of years. The improvement in funded status has been dramatic, yet incremental. Willis Towers Watson’s figures show as much: they show that the funding of a hypothetical benchmark...