January 2021

11Jan

New Zealand. Private superannuation savings schemes ‘underperforming’

People in old-style workplace superannuation savings schemes are often getting lower returns from their investments than they would in KiwiSaver schemes, and it’s prompting some to call for change. Old-style workplace super savings schemes are increasingly revealing to savers how they are tracking compared to KiwiSaver funds, and it’s not flattering their performance. Schemes publish charts showing their funds’ performance compared to the median, or average, KiwiSaver fund in each fund category. There is big money tied up in...

January 11, 2021
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07Jan

UK. Regulators and police say Covid lockdowns have driven up online pension scams and demand regulation of Google, Facebook and others

As people spend longer shopping online, scammers pounce through Google and Facebook.Online pension scams run through social media sites are surging as people are stuck at home in lockdown, regulators and police warned MPs today. Scammers have become increasingly skilled at advertising fake pension investments through Google, Facebook and other digital means, and the increased use of the internet by the public to buy shopping and services has created a fertile environment for the scammers, officials from the Financial Conduct...

January 7, 2021
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07Jan

Dutch schemes slow to implement RI agreement

Not a single one of the more than 80 Dutch pension funds that signed an agreement on furthering responsible investment two years ago has yet implemented all of its guidelines, a monitoring commission has found. The commission has found this “worrisome”, it said in a report it published just before Christmas. The so-called IMVB-convenant – an agreement for international responsible investing – has been signed by more than 80 pension funds, accounting for more than 90% of total Dutch pension...

January 7, 2021
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06Jan

India. New fee structure opens the doors wider for pension fund managers: PFRDA chief

‘Increased fees will ensure both profitability and investment in infra’ Pension regulator PFRDA has now taken a big initiative to revamp the pension funds management structure in India and position the industry for strong decadal growth that could take the overall assets under management of the National Pension System (NPS) to ₹30-lakh crore by 2030. The regulator has now come out with a new Request for Proposal (RFP) for selection of sponsors of pension funds for NPS, throwing open the door for...

January 6, 2021
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05Jan

Covid to accelerate restructuring of Australia’s pensions industry

Testing financial conditions during 2020 have added to the pressure on Australia’s superannuation industry to deliver better investment outcomes and greater cost efficiency, according to Funds Global Asia’s 2020 Australia survey conducted in partnership with Calastone. Respondents predict that this will accelerate mergers between superannuation funds, while placing fresh demands on fund providers to offer wider product choice to scheme members. The Australian pension fund, or “superannuation”, sector, has been under scrutiny from financial regulators over the past four years as...

January 5, 2021
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December 2020

29Dec

US. Pensions Swamped in a Sea of Negative Real Rates

Defined-benefit pension plans were already barely treading water heading into 2020. In the years ahead, the risk is as great as ever that a large swath of them will drown. As the name implies, defined-benefit pensions promise to pay a set amount to retirees. While corporate America has largely moved away from this structure in favor of 401(k) options (or “defined contribution” plans), virtually all state and local governments still offer these reliable retirement payouts. And they’ve been falling...

December 29, 2020
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22Dec

US. Calpers Seeking an Investment Chief With Staying Power

The nation’s largest public pension fund has a retention problem, an especially pressing issue given the deep hole it and other retirement plans are in. The California Public Employees’ Retirement System has burned through six chief investment officers over the past two decades. Its most recent investment chief, Ben Meng, lasted just 19 months. His tenure ended this summer in the midst of questions about whether his personal investments created a conflict of interest. Elsewhere, investment chiefs stay for...

December 22, 2020
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15Dec

Divest or direct? Pension funds weigh their options in the climate crisis

n March 2017, Waltham Forest Council in London held £53.4m in investments in coal, oil and gas through its pension fund. Each of the 16,500 current and former workers who were members of the council’s pension scheme had more than £3,000 invested in fossil fuels. But this was about to change: the previous year, the council had become the first local authority in the UK to announce the divestment of fossil fuel holdings from its pension funds. Divestment can...

December 15, 2020
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15Dec

A Retirement Dashboard for the U.S.?

Noting that the U.S. retirement system is not easy to navigate, a recent white paper calls for the creation of a retirement dashboard to help savers better manage and keep track of their savings. “While it would not address systemic problems such as coverage, a dashboard could reduce the strain that a complex retirement system imposes on households,” authors David John of the AARP Public Policy Institute, Grace Enda of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, and...

December 15, 2020
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11Dec

Asset management CEO arrested in Taiwan pension fund scandal

The CEO and other executives of one of Taiwan's largest asset management companies are being held incommunicado after being questioned over an alleged national labor fund investment scandal, the Taipei District Prosecutor’s Office said Friday (Dec. 11). The office launched the third stage of its bribery investigation on Thursday (Dec. 10). A Ministry of Labor official responsible for labor fund management was arrested two weeks ago for allegedly engaging in stock speculation. You Wei-wen (游迺文), who had been working...

December 11, 2020
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