February 2022
02Feb

EU ropes in pension funds to boost post-Brexit clearing capacity

Mandatory clearing of derivatives contracts by pension funds in the European Union should start in June 2023, helping the bloc to cut reliance on London, the EU’s securities watchdog said on Tuesday. Brussels wants to reduce reliance of EU financial services companies, including pension funds, on clearing euro denominated derivatives in London after Britain left the bloc’s regulatory framework. The mandatory clearing by the pensions funds could help to build up EU capacity in derivatives clearing. London still dominates clearing, with...

February 2, 2022
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02Feb

​Pension funds neglect human capital when setting investment policy, say experts

Pension funds should always take into account human capital, or the career perspective of their members, when determining how much risk they can take with their investments. But they too often fail to do this, according to experts. The degree of certainty of future labour income affects the risk capacity of pension participants; the more predictable and stable their income, the more risk they can shoulder, argued Thomas Pistorius, a risk manager at Pensioenfonds Vervoer, the €37bn fund for the...

February 2, 2022
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January 2022
31Jan

Kenya. NSSF Members to Access Pension Services Through M-Pesa App

The National Social Security Fund (NSSF) members can now access pension services through the NSSF Mini App on the M-Pesa Super App. Following a NEW partnership with Safaricom, customers can register for NSSF membership, keep track of their contributions, top-up and manage their NSSF account, and make Tenant Purchase Scheme (TPS) payments through the "Discover" option within the M-PESA Super App. Read also Iranian Teachers Demand Fair Pay, Pension Adjustment Anthony Omerikwa, Managing Trustee, NSSF said that the partnership is part of...

January 31, 2022
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28Jan

Kenya. Zamara launches retirement insurance plan for boda boda riders

Zamara Group, a financial services provider, has entered into a partnership with the United Boda Boda Association of Kenya. The partnership agreement aims to bring financial security to close to 2 million Kenyans within the Boda Boda sector through its Fahari Retirement Plan. The partnership will kick off with rollout of pilot programs on retirement saving, pensions and insurance acceptance within the sector, training and mass rollout to facilitate adoption. Fahari ya Boda Boda is tailored to the specific needs...

January 28, 2022
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27Jan

UK. Can the FCA tackle greenwashing?

For those who care about environmental, social and governance considerations, watching the glacial progress towards standardised ESG disclosures has been frustrating. There are more working groups, task forces, frameworks and roadmaps than you could shake a stick at (I have never tried shaking a stick at a working group, and it would probably get me fired, but you get the idea). Dare I suggest that we might even spare some sympathy for the Financial Conduct Authority, which has the job of...

January 27, 2022
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27Jan

Ghana. Some retirees under Second Tier receiving less than what is due them – Haruna Iddrisu

Minority Leader in Parliament, Haruna Iddrisu, has revealed that some retirees who are under the Second Tier pensions scheme are receiving less than what is due them at the moment. He described this as a disturbing situation that must be addressed immediately. The Second Tier is a defined contributory Occupational Pension Scheme mandatory for workers with 5% contribution made on behalf of members. The contribution is managed privately by approved Trustees. Speaking on the New Day on TV3 with Johnnie...

January 27, 2022
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21Jan

Canada. ESG challenges: talent shortage and lack of consistent standards

Just as awareness and support is accelerating for environmental, social, governance (ESG) investing, with retirement systems worldwide such as the Canadian pension system attracting attention for their strategies, an issue has arisen – a shortage of financial professionals with sustainable finance skills. Pension funds and investment managers are among the financial services organizations affected by the talent shortage, says a recent report from Toronto Finance International (TFI) and Deloitte. But banks and insurance companies are affected as well. How soon will...

January 21, 2022
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21Jan

US. Pension funds pin their hopes on inflation

America’s biggest private sector pension plans did so badly last year that they earned barely half as much as the traditional low-risk, low-fee balanced portfolio of stocks and bonds. So report international pension consultants Milliman & Co. It says something about the usual performance of U.S. company pension plans that Milliman calls this 2021 result a “win.” (On the bright side, though, company pensions still did much better than Social Security, whose investments effectively lost money.) The 100 biggest private sector pension plans...

January 21, 2022
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20Jan

Australian Pension Seeks to Double Its Assets to $108 Billion by 2025

Australia’s Construction & Building Unions Superannuation Fund expects to double assets to A$150 billion ($108 billion) in three years by snapping up rivals as regulator scrutiny forces smaller firms to exit. The Melbourne-based fund is talking to like-minded firms which will help it hit the target “in a couple years,” the A$68 billion fund’s Chairman Wayne Swan said in an interview Wednesday. “We don’t seek to grow for growth’s sake,” he said. “We seek to grow so we can deliver a...

January 20, 2022
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18Jan

Pension funds and other institutional investors reduce allocations to fixed income, says survey

In a new Aeon Investments' survey of pension funds and other institutional investors in Europe and the US, who collectively have around USD436.5 billion in assets under management, nearly one in four (23 per cent) said they have reduced their allocation to traditional fixed income assets over the past 18 months by up to 10 per cent, and half (51 per cent) said they have cut it by between 10 per cent and 15 per cent. A further 14 per...

January 18, 2022
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