February 2021
19Feb

The ongoing sustainability journey for UK pension schemes

With over £1.3trillion of investments held in the occupational pension arrangements of over 24 million of its citizens, it’s easy to see why pension schemes are an essential part of the UK government’s drive to net-zero. In terms of wider sustainability issues, however, trust law is slower to respond, leaving pension scheme trustees with difficult decisions in some instances. This article provides an overview of the current state of play. Read also Deutsche Bank inks buy-in deal for U.K. pension...

February 19, 2021
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January 2021

15Jan

UK Asset Owners and Managers to Form Sustainability Alliance

How can pension plans and financial managers boost sustainable investing? By forming a group to do so. Read also U.K. government cuts administration fees for smallest DC pots British asset owners and managers are forging an alliance with that in mind. It’s in response to greater calls from regulators in the country to further the fight against climate change and promote other societal goals. Read also U.K. corporate funds finish 2020 with increased deficits The steering group that convened this week...

January 15, 2021
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13Jan

U.K. corporate funds finish 2020 with increased deficits

The total deficit of U.K. defined benefit funds covered by the Pension Protection Fund's 7800 index increased 9.6% in December, to £86.4 billion ($117.3 billion). The deficit was £78.8 billion at the end of November. Deficits also worsened for the year ended Dec. 31, from £10.9 billion, said an update Tuesday by the London-based PPF. The PPF is the lifeboat fund for the defined benefit plans of insolvent U.K. companies. The funding ratio of the corporate pension plans worsened...

January 13, 2021
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December 2020

24Dec

US. Sustainability movements with staying power

It took the coronavirus pandemic and the death of George Floyd to convince Americans that racial inequality is a part of every facet of our economy. The awakening lifted several sustainability movements that will carry into 2021. Corporate America slowly is making progress on diversity. Environmental justice advocates have gained a foothold in Washington politics at the highest levels, underscored by President-elect Joe Biden’s Cabinet nominees. Wall Street had its own epiphany. Asset managers, insurers, pension funds and foundations...

December 24, 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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11Dec

Depopulation, Aging, and Living Environments: Learning from Social Capital and Mountainous Areas in Japan (Advances in Geographical and Environmental Sciences)

By Kenji Tsutsumi This book provides perspectives on depopulated areas and regional social capital from positivistic field surveys. Among the developed countries of the world, Japan has a very small amount of national land, with almost 70% of it being in mountainous locations. Concentration of populations and economic capital into large metropolitan areas along with many depopulated and population-aged regions in the mountainous parts can be seen in the country. A very clear regional disparity has arisen in Japan, especially...

December 11, 2020
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04Dec

EIOPA launches discussion paper on a methodology for integrating climate change in the standard formula

Today, the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) published a discussion paper on a methodology for the potential inclusion of climate change in the Solvency II standard formula when calculating natural catastrophe underwriting risk. This discussion paper is a follow-up to EIOPA’s Opinion on Sustainability within Solvency II issued in September last year, which concluded that there is a need to consider if and how climate change-related perils could be better captured in the Solvency II framework...

December 4, 2020
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November 2020

26Nov

In unprecedented move, Canadian pension funds unite to call for greater ESG standards

In an unprecedented move, some of Canada’s largest institutional investors have banded together to ask companies for more rigorous disclosures of environmental, social and governance factors, an effort they say is meant to promote more sustainable and inclusive economic growth. Read also Swedish pension giant and LGIM launch sustainable EM equity fund A group of eight pension funds, which together manage a total of about $1.6 trillion in assets, called on corporations in a joint statement Wednesday to standardize their...

November 26, 2020
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16Nov

Chile’s famed pensions system faces an existential crisis

Chile’s celebrated $200bn private pensions system has served as a model for dozens of emerging markets since it was introduced in the 1980s. Now, it faces an existential crisis as public support for the model fades and populist politicians allow savers to withdraw funds during the coronavirus crisis. The lower house of congress voted to allow Chileans to withdraw another 10 per cent of their pension funds last week, following a similar measure in July that saw withdrawals of some...

November 16, 2020
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16Nov

Zimbabwe. Retirees Watch Pensions Evaporate Amid Currency Chaos

Employees paid into their pensions for decades. By the time they retired, much of that money had disappeared. The line forms early outside a local bank in Harare. As the sun rises over Zimbabwe’s capital city, the crowd begins to sweat. Men with knobkerries, a kind of walking stick, and women adorned with headscarves lean on the bank’s walls. Some collapse on the stairs, tired and waiting. Always waiting. Every month, these pensioners stand in an hours-long line to collect...

November 16, 2020
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