November 2020

13Nov

The $75 Billion UN Pension Fund: Kicking Reforms Down the Road

A new governance study has confirmed what many United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund observers have long surmised: there are significant variances between the fund’s own operations and best practices and those of pension funds elsewhere. The areas reviewed by Mosaic Governance Advisors, who prepared the study, include standards of professional and ethical conduct, conflicts of interest and oversight of culture. There were certainly clues as to problems: two internal audits conducted by the UN Office of Internal Oversight...

November 13, 2020
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12Nov

German pension system requires tweaks to stand future challenges

The German retirement system will have to continue to adapt to new circumstances through a series of changes to sharpen its private and occupational pensionsprovision, according to panellists speaking at the virtual Handelsblatt annual conference on occupational pensions this week. Measures should be adopted to make savings products “more profitable than today”, if the aim is to rely on private pension provisions, said Dorothea Mohn, head of the financial market team at the organization for the protection of consumers...

November 12, 2020
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October 2020

29Oct

Pension Reform in Mexico: Guiding Principles for Creating a Sustainable and Balanced System for Private Sector Workers

By Guillermo Zamarripa & Gustavo A. Del Angel From 1995 to 1997, Mexico engaged in a major pension reform. With that change, the system migrated from a pay as you go defined benefit model to a defined contribution one. The pension system reform permitted a sustained increase of financial savings in Mexico from 1999 to 2019. Savings managed by the pension funds -the Afores1- reached 16.6% of GDP as of the end of 2019. However, after more than two...

October 29, 2020
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22Oct

Kenya mulls reforms to attract pension funds to invest in infrastructure projects

Kenya mulls reforms to attract pension funds to invest in infrastructure projects. Kenya is considering a number of legal reforms in order to attract both foreign and domestic pension funds to invest in infrastructure projects, a government official said on Wednesday. Julius Muia principal secretary, National Treasury told a virtual meeting that the government is keen to tap on private sector resources in order to close the infrastructure funding gap. "If there are laws or policies that will make it easier for...

October 22, 2020
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21Oct

Mexico. López Obrador faces pension funds’ ire with commissions cut plan

Plans by Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to force fund managers to cut their fees as part of a pension reform have prompted threats of litigation. Read also Chile’s pension funds join global gold ETP rush Private pension funds would have to cut their commissions almost in half to 0.54 percent, from 0.92 percent, according to a bill sent to Congress in September, which is expected to be approved in both chambers in the next weeks. Read also COVID-19...

October 21, 2020
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15Oct

Workforce Aging, Pension Reforms, and Firm Outcomes

By Francesca Carta, Francesco D’Amuri, Till Von Wachter Raising statutory retirement ages has been a popular policy to increase the labor supply of older workers in the face of population aging. In this paper, we quantify the effect of a sharp and unexpected increase in retirement ages on firms’ input mix and economic outcomes using Italian administrative and survey data on employment, wages, value added and capital. Exploiting information on lifetime pension contributions for the universe of employees, we...

October 15, 2020
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08Oct

Ireland. State’s pension scheme for public servants ‘more sustainable’

Over 40% of the government's 345,000 employees now belong to the less generous pension scheme introduced for new entrants in 2013, according to an expenditure review issued by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform today. The review describes the introduction of the state's Single Scheme for public servants' pensions as "arguably the most fundamental reform to date" which is set to put the state pension bill on a sustainable footing. Before its introduction, there were fears...

October 8, 2020
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August 2020

24Aug

Philippines. Dominguez pushes for reforms in corporate pension system

The Capital Market Development Council chaired by Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III is considering reforms in the corporate pension system, including the recommendation by the Fund Managers Association of the Philippines to require the partial or full funding requirement of retirement plans for private sector workers. Dominguez said over the weekend the council consulted the Department of Labor and Employment on FMAP’s recommendation. He said the recommendation would help provide sufficient funds for the pension or retirement plans...

August 24, 2020
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20Aug

A step closer to retirement reform in South Africa

By Jerry Botha, managing partner, and Jean Du Toit, head of tax technical at Tax Consulting South Africa As announced in the Budget Speech, any South African leaving in future will be subject to a much stricter process from 1 March 2021 onwards. But there was also a surprise 3-year lockup announcement for anyone with a South African pension fund, seeking to leave South Africa. This appears a sign of things to come for private pensions in South Africa....

August 20, 2020
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17Aug

Ireland. Kicking pensions can down the road will cost us all

During this pandemic the Government must not ignore the urgent need for pension reform. After protracted negotiations to form a new Government, urgent attention is now required to reform the pension system and protect the retirement security of future pensioners. The underlying issues are clear: our population continues to age; the cost of providing State pension support is growing; and the participation rates and adequacy of private pension saving remain too low. Experience shows that longer-term issues such as...

August 17, 2020
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