December 2022

UK. FCA bans third-party dashboard consumer charges

The Financial Conduct Authority will prohibit third parties from charging customers for services linked to pension dashboards as part of its regulatory framework for the initiative. According to its new consultation - published on December 1, on the same day that the Pensions Dashboards Programme issued its own consultation into design standards - the FCA recognised that some dashboard providers will look to third-party agreements for areas including licensing or third-party hosting. Any agreement with a third party, however, must allow...

Maintaining reform momentum is essential to strengthen pension systems, says OECD

The current financial and economic uncertainty, as well as the rising cost of living, may lead policy makers, regulators and supervisors to postpone reforms that could improve their pensions systems. However, delaying needed reforms would put at risk the well-being of current and future pensioners. Policy makers should continue to improve pension systems, according to a new OECD report. The OECD Pensions Outlook 2022 says that pension arrangements in which retirement savings are invested to accumulate assets that will finance...

November 2022

UK. FCA reveals £49m redress scheme for British Steel pensions

Financial advisers to pay about £45,000 a worker to 1,000 staff who received unsuitable advice More than 1,000 former members of the British Steel pension scheme who received unsuitable advice from financial advisers accused of “enriching” themselves will receive an average payout of £45,000 in compensation. The City watchdog on Monday launched plans for a scheme that seeks to compensate those who had not yet received redress after being given poor pension transfer advice when British Steel fell into financial hardship. The...

US. New Biden rule allows socially conscious investing by retirement plans

President Joe Biden's administration on Tuesday reversed restrictions imposed under his predecessor Donald Trump on retirement plans considering environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors such as climate change and racial justice when selecting investments. The Labor Department announced a final rule first proposed last year after Biden, a Democrat, ordered government agencies to assess climate-related risk to retirement and pension investments. Read also 41% of U.S. women expect to retire at age 70, older or not at all: survey The rule will...

European regulator drafts guidelines for ESG fund names

European Securities and Markets Authority, the European Union's securities regulator, is seeking input as it works on rules for funds calling themselves sustainable or ESG. In a consultation paper published Nov. 18, ESMA offered draft guidelines for such funds, saying the names "should be supported in a material way by evidence of sustainability characteristics or objectives that are reflected fairly and consistently in the fund's investment objectives and policy." The proposal said those names "are a powerful marketing tool." Read also...

Planned reforms to UK pensions will open access to PE

Defined contribution schemes in the UK may soon be allowed greater access to private markets following proposals from the Department for Work and Pensions. Under the consultation, published on 6 October, the UK government plans to remove performance fees from the charge cap applied to DC schemes – which are constrained by an annual 0.75 percent charge cap on assets under management and administration. This has acted as a barrier to accessing certain asset classes that charge a performance fee,...

UK regulators call for action on hidden leverage threat to pension funds

Regulators and policymakers are calling for action to address the risks associated with pension funds’ use of derivatives, after key watchdogs admitted last week that they were unprepared for the crisis that hit the industry in September. The meltdown, now the focus of four separate parliamentary probes, revealed regulators did not have a reliable picture of the scale of hidden leverage in liability-driven investment (LDI) strategies, which cover about £1.4tn of the future promises made by UK defined benefit pension...

EU regulators seek input on greenwashing

European financial regulators issued a call Tuesday for stakeholders to help them better understand greenwashing features, drivers and risks, and to identify potential greenwashing practices. The call for evidence came from the European Union's European Supervisory Authorities, consisting of the European Banking Authority and European Securities and Markets Authority in Paris and the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority in Frankfurt. In the statement, the ESAs cited "rapidly evolving regulatory regimes" as well as growing demand for sustainability-related products and "the...

Financial System: Challenges and Opportunities of Digital Transformation in Mexico

By Vanessa Veintimilla Brando & Daniel Miranda Lopez This work aims to understand the implications that financial technology represents for the Mexican financial system. Considering that the adoption of new technologies in the financial system (Fintech) is increasing, a novel and complex context has arisen with diverse implications in various aspects such as education, infrastructure, and the regulatory and supervisory framework needed to ensure a healthy development of the financial system. Although it has been shown that digitization brings...

The Nobel laureate, Paul Krugman and other experts will celebrate 25th anniversary of the Mexican pension system at Encuentro Amafore 2022

Encuentro Amafore 2022 will take place at the Citibanamex Center on the 16 and 17 of November, with keynote speeches by the 2008 Nobel Prize in Economics, Paul Krugman; 2004 Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and geopolitical expert Anne Applebaum; the political scientist, writer and professor at Stanford University, Francis Fukuyama; and the Director of Strategic Alliances and Contents of América Móvil, Arturo Elías Ayub. It will also feature keynote addresses by the director of strategic functions at BlackRock, Peter Fisher; Franklin...