March 2023
03Mar

African Pension Funds – Environmental, Social & Governance Factors Benchmarking Exercise

By Dr Rory Sullivan and Robert Black, Matthew Sullivan & Fiona Stewart African Pension Supervisors Forum, representing pension supervisory authorities from across the African region, invited the team to review the approach to incorporation of ESG factors into decision making by pension funds across the región This project assessed a sample of Africa’s pension funds on their sustainable investment related disclosure Strengths in disclosure were: 1.All of the funds provide good disclosure about their organisation, including their history, ownership, mission, governance structure...

March 3, 2023
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03Mar

The Liability Trap: Why the ALEC Anti-ESG Bills Create a Legal Quagmire for Fiduciaries Connected with Public Pensions

By David J. Berger, David H. Webber & Beth Young Two proposed bills barring public pensions from considering environmental, social, and governance investment criteria create massive legal risk for any pension fiduciary or service provider. The American Legislative Exchange Council “boycott bill” and the “fiduciary duty” bill, if adopted, would impose irreconcilable legal requirements on such fiduciaries, and subject them to compliance with arbitrary and unworkable legal demands. The main legal problems the bills create fall into four categories: (1) the unworkable...

March 3, 2023
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February 2023
24Feb

Canada’s CDPQ is slammed by bond rout in worst year since 2008

The historic bond market rout did not spare the Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec, causing the pension manager to post its worst results since the global financial crisis. Canada’s second-largest public fund lost 5.6 per cent and saw net assets fall to $402 billion (US$297 billion), down $18 billion from the prior year. Its fixed-income portfolio was shredded by the rapid rise in interest rates, falling almost 15 per cent. The result would have been much worse if not...

February 24, 2023
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23Feb

Nigeria: SEC to collaborate with PenCom in deepening commodities sector

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has announced plans to collaborate with the National Pension Commission (PenCom) on areas that would assist in further deepening the commodities ecosystem. Its Director-General, Mr Lamido Yuguda in a statement said this during a meeting between the commission’s management, the Lagos Futures and Commodities Exchange (LFCE) and PenCom held in Abuja. Yuguda was represented by Mr Ibrahim Boyi, Executive Commissioner Corporate Services of  SEC at the meeting. The director-general noted that SEC was passionate about the...

February 23, 2023
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23Feb

Willis Towers Watson dives into U.S. market for pooled employer plans

After launching pooled employer plans in the U.K. and Europe, Willis Towers Watson is hitting the U.S. market with its own PEP offering. In a news release Thursday, the British-American multinational company announced that it had launched LifeSight PEP, a pooled employer plan for the U.S. market that it says "simplifies 401(k) plan sponsorship for employers and improves outcomes for their employees." The pooled employer plan will use Transamerica as its record keeper. The company will pursue employers with anywhere from a...

February 23, 2023
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21Feb

Kenya. Administrator welcomes NSSF contribution rise, urges simple opt-out process

Pension administrator Enwealth has welcomed the move to increase retirement savings contributions through the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) Act 2013. Early this February, the Court of Appeal quashed a judgment by an Employment and Labour Relations Court that declared the NSSF Act 2013 unconstitutional. While the Act recommended a monthly deduction of Sh200 to Sh600 for lower earners, top earners will be deducted Sh320 to Sh1,080 on a graduated scale. Increased contributions seek to ensure financial security for the retirees. However, the...

February 21, 2023
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17Feb

EIOPA, Unit-linked Insurance and Polish Product Intervention: A Silent Regulatory Revolution?

By Lucie Škapová When the Polish financial market supervisor, Komisja Nadzoru Finansowego (KNF), notified its intention to prohibit certain unit-linked insurance products marketed in Poland, it created an unprecedented situation: for the first time, a financial market supervisor decided to trigger Chapter III of the PRIIPs Regulation and adopt product intervention measures in the insurance sector. If adopted, these measures would regulate not only the investment strategies of unit-linked insurance products offered in Poland but also their cost structure and...

February 17, 2023
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17Feb

Putting Labor’s Capital to Work for Labor: Restoring a Worker-Centric Vision of Fiduciary Duty

By David H. Webber  This report has two goals: first, to illustrate how the legal concept of fiduciary duty, designed to protect worker retirement funds, has been captured and distorted in ways that harm workers. Second, to propose means of restoring fiduciary duty to its proper purpose. The state-level fiduciary duties addressed in this report govern the investment of up to $10 trillion in assets and directly shape the retirements of 26 million working-class Americans. They are also just about...

February 17, 2023
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16Feb

Global institutional retirement assets decline 16.7% in 2022 – Thinking Ahead Institute

Global institutional retirement assets saw a drop of 16.7% in 2022 compared to 2021, dipping to $47.9 trillion — a decline not seen since the 2008 global financial crisis, according to a study by the Thinking Ahead Institute in London. Marisa Hall, institute head, said that retirement assets are very linked to capital markets. "When you see corrections in equities and bonds as we have seen over the last year, it will have a knock-on effect on pension funds," she said. Read...

February 16, 2023
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16Feb

Denmark’s AkademikerPension takes on the banks financing fossil fuels

Denmark’s AkademikerPension, the member-owned pension fund for 150,000 academics, has just notched up another important milestone in its ambitious sustainability strategy. Pressure from the fund’s CIO and chief financial officer Anders Schelde on Denmark’s Dankse Bank contributed to the lender announcing plans to end new financing to oil and gas E&P companies that don’t have a credible transition plan in line with the Paris Agreement. Last year, Schelde stood up and challenged Dankse executives at the bank’s AGM, the only...

February 16, 2023
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