September 2020

23Sep

Switzerland. Credit Suisse pension study 2020: Early retirement – the path is becoming more difficult

Many Swiss citizens want to retire early - and around half of them actually manage to do so. Early retirement is particularly widespread among single people, people with higher incomes, and people living in French-speaking Switzerland. Credit Suisse economists have calculated the financial shortfalls associated with early retirement: For people in the middle-income bracket, drawing the AHV pension and employee benefits insurance pension two years early results in a reduction in income of approximately 14% over the course of...

September 23, 2020
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August 2020

11Aug

Switzerland. Pension reform initiative runs out of steam at early stage

The campaigners announced they had failed to collect the required minimum number of signatures and saw no chances of doing so by the deadline in early October. “Without any doubt I have been miscalculating a few things. The coronavirus did the rest for us,” said the main promoter of the initiative. Josef Bachmann said citizens were aware of the flaws in the current system, but under the restrictions imposed to fight the pandemic, it was much more difficult to...

August 11, 2020
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July 2020

16Jul

Climate activists take Swiss finance regulators to task

Environmental group Greenpeace has filed a formal protest against Switzerland’s financial regulators over their perceived failure to impose climate policy rules. The group called on the financial market watchdog body FINMA, the National Bank as well as the Occupational Pension Supervisory Commission to ensure that banks, insurance companies and pension funds stop financing projects worldwide which are harmful to the climate. These institutions contribute to greenhouse gas emissions of the Swiss finance industry and neglect their duty to protect...

July 16, 2020
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01Jul

Swiss government outlines framework for sustainable finance

Unveiling a report on sustainable finance on Friday, Finance Minister Ueli Maurer said legislators would stay in the background as a last resort measure. However, the report identified a number of criteria it would monitor and called for improvements in some areas. Banks, pension funds, insurers and asset managers are expected to step up efforts to make sure customers get full disclosure of relevant information on their investments and to better calculate the financial consequences of harmful activities. A...

July 1, 2020
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May 2020
15May

Swiss pension funding levels recover after falling below 100%

The funding ratio of Swiss Pensionskassen bounced back to 103% in April after declining to 99.8% for a short time at the end of March, according to Complementa’s latest “risk check-up” analysis report. Central banks have sent a clear message through a series of interventions to say they “stand by” the equity market “whatever it costs”, Thomas Breitenmoser, head of investment consulting at Complementa, told IPE during a conference call. The funding ratio of Swiss pension schemes will depend...

May 15, 2020
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April 2020

08Apr

Why Switzerland is struggling to guarantee pensions for the next generation

The Swiss pension system is complex, and is based on three so-called pillars: old-age and survivors’ insurance (known as the AVS), occupational pension planning (often referred to as LPP) and private saving for old age encouraged through tax breaks. This set-up enables risk-sharing and, although “unfortunately not perfect”, could be “a model for other States”, says Thomas Gächter, professor of social insurance law at Zurich University. Read also UK. Wakefield man who failed to claim pension gets...

April 8, 2020
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November 2019

12Nov

Switzerland. Aging in good health: The inequalities are widening

Life expectancy in Switzerland has been growing steadily for decades. But have these additional years been spent in good health or, on the contrary, do they only prolong the ills of an aging population? In an attempt to answer this question, researchers from the University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland, collated data from the Swiss National Cohort (SNC) and the Swiss Health Surveys between 1990 and 2015, all within the framework of the "LIVES" National Centre of Competence in Research...

November 12, 2019
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June 2019

14Jun

Minding the gap between the sexes in Switzerland

In Switzerland, equal rights for women and men are enshrined in the Federal Constitution – which is what voters wanted. But nearly 40 years after the popular vote of June 14, 1981, the goal of equality has yet to be achieved. Here are five key indicators illustrating day-to-day gender inequality in Switzerland. “Men and women have the right to equal pay for work of equal value,” states the constitutional article on equal rightsexternal link. The law also expressly prohibits...

June 14, 2019
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April 2019

08Apr

Are Switzerland’s pensions too high?

The Swiss pension system is in danger of collapse. At the same time, Swiss retirees get higher pensions than almost anywhere else in the world. Is the country due for a reality check? The Swiss are a nation of happy pensioners. A study by UBS (International Pension Gap Index) found that in Switzerland (compared with 12 other countries), generous pensions mean that people must save the least for their old age – and that is in a country that...

April 8, 2019
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September 2018

28Sep

The Politics of Aging and Retirement: Evidence from Swiss Referenda

By Piera Bello (University of Lugano) Vincenzo Galasso (University of Lugano; Centre for Economic Policy Research) Aging creates financial troubles for PAYG pension systems, since the share of retirees to workers increases. An often advocated policy response is to increase retirement age. Ironically, however, the political support for this policy may actually be hindered by population aging. Using Swiss administrative voting data at municipal level (and individual survey data) from pension reforms referenda, we show in fact that individuals close...

September 28, 2018
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