April 2025
02Apr

Zimbabwe. Regulator reforms for $17bn pensions industry

Zimbabwe’s Insurance and Pensions Commission (Ipec) is laying down the law on pension fund governance, reports News Day. Ipec’s pensions and life department manager Polite Chidumwa said the insurance and pensions regulator was working to make sure that the contributions were not wiped out over time, which involved ensuring proper governance structures. Ipec is engaged in several reforms to ensure that member contributions to pension funds do not lose value as payouts to pensioners continue to decline owing to exchange rate...

April 2, 2025
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March 2025
31Mar

Flights grounded as Belgium strikes over pension reform

Brussels: A general strike over proposed pension reforms severely disrupted air traffic and other services in Belgium on Monday, with the country’s two main airports cancelling all outbound flights. Government plans to scrap a special pension scheme and align the retirement age for all civil servants with that of the private sector at 66 have enraged trade unions and many workers. A large section of security and maintenance staff, including baggage handlers, were expected to down tools, prompting the Brussels and...

March 31, 2025
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28Mar

Chile: Strengthening social security and increasing labor costs

Congress has approved social security reforms aimed at improving retirement outcomes for workers, primarily by significantly increasing employer contributions over time and encouraging greater competition among service providers. In Chile, social security retirement, survivors’ and disability benefits are based on compulsory individual defined contribution (DC) accounts managed by private fund administrators (Administradoras de Fondos de Pensiones – AFPs). Accounts are funded primarily by employee contributions at 10.0% of covered pay. The increases are to start six months after publication of...

March 28, 2025
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20Mar

South Korea approves reforms to shore up $830 bln state pension fund

South Korea's parliament on Thursday passed a bill to reform the country's $830 billion pension fund and delay the depletion of the state fund that has been on track to run out by the mid-2050s due to a rapidly ageing population. The bill's passage marks the first time parliament has agreed to a major shake-up in the state pension fund in 18 years and could delay depletion by 15 years. Under the legislative amendment, contributions and payouts will rise, the former...

March 20, 2025
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14Mar

Pension Reform and Stock Market Development

By Shujaat Khan, Bo Li & Yunhui Zhao We highlight the strong connection between developing fully-funded, individually-owned, collectively-managed, mandatory/incentivized (FICMI) pension schemes and the development of domestic stock markets. We do so by building a stylized model and complementing the analysis with cross-country empirical analysis and case studies. We also highlight the challenges of individual impatience, network externalities, and coordination failure in long-term equity investments, which are crucial for stock market development and technological innovation. We find that FICMI pension...

March 14, 2025
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14Mar

Public pensions reforms: financial and political sustainability

By Julián Díaz Saavedra One main reason for the unsustainability of future pensions in many European countries is a failure to adapt to very long-term demographic trends. Also, a reform to address financing issues can also be an occasion to improve pension design. Sometimes, however, such pension reforms are likely to be overturned when they lead to significant short-term losses in retirement income. We use an overlapping generations economy with incomplete insurance markets to show that, with an appropriate design,...

March 14, 2025
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11Mar

Thailand. Social Security Board approves fairer pension calculation

The Social Security Board has approved an adjustment to the calculation of retirement pensions to ensure fairness among Section 33 and Section 39 insurers on Tuesday. Marasri Jairangsee, secretary-general of the Social Security Office, stated that the three-hour discussion included representatives from employers, employees and the government. “Labour Ministry permanent secretary Boonsong Thapchaiyut, who chaired the Social Security Board, has approved the adjustment to the pension calculation for Section 33 and 39 insurers,” she said. She explained that the adjustment has been under...

March 11, 2025
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February 2025
24Feb

Could Retirement Finance Reform Reboot the European Economy?

The European Union is grappling with two interlinked crises that threaten its long-term economic stability: a severe shortfall in risk capital and an impending pension crisis exacerbated by demographic aging. Recent reports by Mario Draghi and Enrico Letta have sounded the alarm on the EU’s moribund growth prospects, highlighting a critical lack of investment liquidity for innovation and infrastructure. At the same time, Europe’s dominant pay-as-you-go pension systems are in an actuarial death spiral as the working-age population shrinks...

February 24, 2025
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21Feb

France. Pensions: a deficit of 30 billion euros in 2045 without new reform

The Court of Auditors unveiled this Thursday an alarming report on the future of the pension system in France, commissioned by François Bayrou to serve as a basis for negotiations between social partners. According to its projections, the deficit would reach 15 billion euros in 2035 and 30 billion in 2045 if no additional reforms are implemented. In 2023, a surplus of 8,5 billion euros was recorded, but this is explained by cyclical effects linked to inflation and the...

February 21, 2025
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19Feb

France’s latest pensions battle could ignite fresh political crisis

President Emmanuel Macron braved strikes and street protests to force through a deeply unpopular reform in 2023 raising France's retirement age by two years to 64, saying it was the only way to keep the generous but costly pension system afloat. Now an assessment this week by the country's independent public audit office on the size of the pension deficit could rekindle debate about the divisive reform and plunge Macron's fragile, debt-laden government back into crisis. Francois Bayrou, Macron's latest prime minister, requested...

February 19, 2025
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