June 2022
03Jun

Governance Issues Loom Over US Pension Funds

Fiscal year 2021 was a great year for public pensions. According to funding data from Pew Charitable Trusts, a decade of increasing pension contributions was bolstered by the reopening rally of 2021. As a result, public pensions in all 50 states saw their funding ratios top 80%, the highest level since before the Great Recession. By the end of fiscal 2021, public pensions had made the greatest progress in a century toward closing the gap between plan funding and...

June 3, 2022
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May 2022
26May

Korea Investment Corp. reports 9.13% gain for 2021

Korea Investment Corporation, the Seoul-based sovereign wealth fund, reported a 9.13% investment gain for 2021 on the back of strong equity market returns, ending the year with its portfolio valued at $205 billion. A KIC news release Thursday credited "solid performance and continued asset entrustments by the government" for lifting the fund's portfolio above the $200 billion mark for the first time. A KIC spokeswoman declined to provide details regarding government infusions to the fund over the past year. But a...

May 26, 2022
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26May

Swiss regulator urges pension funds to check asset manager licenses

The Swiss occupational pension supervisory commission OAK BV is urging pension institutions including pension funds to check whether external asset managers still need the approval from the Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) to manage so-called collective assets. According to the Federal Act on Financial Institutions (FinIA), the two categories of managers of collective assets include asset managers of occupational pension schemes and of collective investment schemes. OAK BV is also recommending investment foundations, vested benefit foundations (Freizügigkeitseinrichtung) that receive the benefits...

May 26, 2022
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20May

CPPIB returns net 6.8% for fiscal year

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board returned a net 6.8% for the fiscal year ended March 31, the Toronto-based board announced in a news release Thursday. CPPIB, which manages the assets of the Canada Pension Plan, said the pension fund's net assets increased to C$539 billion ($431.8 billion) from C$497 billion a year ago. It added that the C$42 billion increase comprised $34 billion in net income and $8 billion in net transfers from the plan. The portfolio achieved five-year and 10-year...

May 20, 2022
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19May

Canadian Pensions Can Withstand Higher Inflation, Weaker Growth

Fitch-rated Canadian pension funds are well positioned to withstand higher inflation and modest economic growth amid heightened market volatility, Fitch Ratings says. That said, stagflation would be more challenging, given funds’ long-only investment strategies and vulnerability to economic and market downturns. The maturing nature of participant bases increases pension funds’ reliance on investment returns, as contributions and income from active members may be outpaced by benefits paid to a growing number of retirees. Still, Canadian pension funds’ long-term investment...

May 19, 2022
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11May

US. Companies Race to Offload Pension Risk as Market Volatility Rises

The market for pension risk transfers is booming. In the first quarter of 2022, U.S. pension risk transfers reached $5.5 billion in total market volume, marking its largest quarter to date, according to Legal & General Retirement America’s pension risk transfer monitor. A PRT deal happens when a retirement provider — usually a corporate pension plan sponsor — unloads a portion of (or all) of its liabilities to an insurance company. Beth Ashmore, managing director of retirement at Willis Towers Watson,...

May 11, 2022
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10May

Nigeria. Pension fund assets now worth N13.88tr

Pension fund assets grew by N453.8 billion to a historic N13.88 trillion in the first of quarter of the year ended March 2022 (Q1 2022), and assets under management rose 3.38 per cent above N13.4 billion in December 2021. Data compiled by the National Pension Commission (PenCom) also shows that 12,336 Pension Fund Administrator (PFA) contributors switched their Retirement Savings Accounts (RSAs) between PFAs in Q1 2022. This is 4.2 per cent lower than the 12,874 who switched in Q4 2021...

May 10, 2022
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UK, Risk, Pension management
09May

Windfall tax on oil giants won’t hurt British pensioners, thinktank finds

Britain’s main pension funds own less than 0.2% of Shell and BP shares, undermining claims that a windfall tax on big oil companies would harm the retirement incomes of UK savers. A review of the oil giants’ shares by the Common Wealth thinktank shows the largest holdings are by US investment companies, including BlackRock and Vanguard, and the wealthy Norwegian pension funds. The UK’s multibillion-pound defined contribution occupational pension funds, which hold the savings of tens of millions of workers,...

May 9, 2022
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06May

US. Pension Risk Transfer Market Has Largest First Quarter in History

The pension risk transfer market had a total volume of $5.5 billion in the first quarter of 2022, according to a report by Legal & General. This is the largest first quarter for the PRT market in history. It represents a 45% increase from last year’s first-quarter volume of $3.8 billion and a 22% increase from 2020’s first-quarter volume of $4.5 billion. Two deals made during Q1 of 2020 were over $1 billion in volume. Read also U.S. corporate pension...

May 6, 2022
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04May

US. State Public Pension Fund Returns Expected to Decline

About 29 million Americans have been promised retirement benefits through state public sector pension systems. And more than half of those benefits depend on earnings generated by nearly $4 trillion in assets held in trust by those systems.1 However, with more than two-thirds of those assets allocated to risky investments—publicly traded stocks, also known as equities, and alternative vehicles, including private equity, real estate, and hedge funds—retirement systems’ ability to meet their commitments hinges largely on investments that are...

May 4, 2022
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