September 2022
12Sep

UK. TPR and ICO urged to align ‘unintentionally conflicting’ guidance

Guidance from The Pensions Regulator (TPR) and the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) should be better aligned and expressly refer to the specific intricacies of the pensions sector, the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) has said. In written evidence to the Work and Pensions Committee, the USS warned that it has faced a number of challenges in ensuring its ongoing compliance with the requirements of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR). In particular, the USS highlighted barriers in relation to the current...

September 12, 2022
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05Sep

US. ESG, CIOs on crash course with politics

How 'woke' a public pension plan portfolio is depends on which state it's located in As executives and trustees of public pension plans navigate the balance between political demands and fiduciary duties, they are encountering legislators and governors to the right and the left telling them what they must do or cannot do, but without offering much guidance on how to do it while still setting deadlines for action. Often depending on the political color of the state, public pension executives...

September 5, 2022
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02Sep

US. Florida Retirement System returns -6.3% for fiscal year

Florida Retirement System, Tallahassee, returned a net -6.3% for the fiscal year ended June 30. The $180 billion pension fund's return exceeded the benchmark return of -9.1% for the period, according to a performance report on the website of the Florida State Board of Administration, which oversees the pension fund's investments. For the three, five and 10 years ended June 30, the pension fund returned an annualized net 7.7%, 7.7% and 8.6%, respectively, above the respective benchmarks of 5.7%, 6.2% and...

September 2, 2022
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01Sep

U.S. corporate pension buyouts hit record $12.3 billion in Q2 – LIMRA

U.S. corporate pension plan buyout sales totaled $12.31 billion in the quarter ended June 30, the highest volume for a second quarter ever recorded, a LIMRA survey found. The second-quarter total in buyout sales represented an increase of 148% from the year-over-year quarter, which saw a total of $4.97 billion in combined buyout and buy-in sales during the three months ended June 30, 2021. The exceptionally high volume in the second quarter of this year is especially significant since the vast...

September 1, 2022
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01Sep

UK. Pensions dashboards standards need ‘extensive user testing’

Respondents to the pensions dashboards standards consultation have warned that user testing and experience will be required before a full assessment can be provided. The Department for Work and Pensions intends for the dashboards’ legislative framework to come into force from April 2023. The Pensions Dashboards Programme’s consultation, launched on July 19, sought input from the pensions industry on areas including operational, security and design standards. The Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association and the Society of Pension Professionals were among respondents...

September 1, 2022
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August 2022
26Aug

Mercer’s Asia Retirement Survey Report

By Mercer Conducted over 2019 to 2021, this series leverages our client base across Asia, and aims to bring together common issues in retirement security that Asia business leaders, HR and Finance partners can take action on. In combination, we have surveyed views from more than 700 employers from all industries, with responsibility for the well-being of over 120,000 employees. Get the report here

August 26, 2022
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26Aug

Climate Risk and Indian Pension Funds

Since Reserve Bank of India (RBI) published its discussion paper on climate risk for stakeholder consultation it is somewhat puzzling to notice that other financial regulators have not taken a similar approach to gauge the extent of climate risk in their respective domains. Climate risk, being a systemic risk, will impact the entire financial sector. Let us take the case of pension funds. Globally, since the signing of UN Climate Change Conference (COP26), major pension funds such as the Ontario...

August 26, 2022
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Liz Truss
22Aug

UK. Liz Truss eyes merger of regulators

Conservative party leadership candidate Liz Truss is eyeing up plans to merge three of the financial regulators, but advisers say her plans are destined to fail. Read also Renewable energy’s charm still growing for investors According to FTAdviser's sister title The Financial Times, Truss will launch an immediate review of the roles and responsibilities of the regulators if she wins her party's leadership election next month. It could see the Financial Conduct Authority, the Prudential Regulation Authority and the Payments Systems Regulator...

August 22, 2022
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16Aug

UK. Govt to change civil servants’ early pensions access

The government has proposed to change the rules around early access to pensions in the civil service, tracking 10 years behind state pension age, according to a new consultation over reforms to the Civil Service Compensation Scheme. The Cabinet Office had launched a consultation to this effect in 2017, but on August 15 it published a new document with updated proposals to be discussed with trade unions as it considered that a long time has elapsed since the initial consultation,...

August 16, 2022
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12Aug

U.K. pension regulator calling on plan sponsors to support pension scam prevention strategy

The Pension Regulator, the U.K. government body that oversees defined benefit pension plans, is calling on plan sponsors to help advance a three-pronged strategy to fight pension fraud. “Over many years, we have worked to prevent savers’ losses and put fraudsters in prison: running large-scale public awareness campaigns, leading a multi-agency response to the threat through [the pension scams action group]. . . . But the truth is, we must all do more to combat pension scams,” said Nicola Parish,...

August 12, 2022
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