July 2021
23Jul

UK. Can CDCs solve the pension funding problem?

Defined-benefit (DB) pension schemes have been in decline for years and in most professions younger employees are offered defined-contribution (DC) schemes, which lack many of the former's benefits. But a new option aims to deliver the best of both types of pensions. This week, the government has issued a consultation on draft legislation for Collective Defined Contribution (CDC) Schemes, spurred on by Royal Mail (RMG) which had been lobbying for new legislation to accommodate CDCs since 2018. CDC pensions work by...

July 23, 2021
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13Jul

Nigeria. Avoiding A Future Of Retired Destitute

NIGERIA’S Population has grown from 45.1 million in 1960 to the current 211.4 in 2021. By the United Nations estimates, the population grew by 2.5 per cent from its 2020 figure. Read also Jamaica. Dead or alive? Pension payments continue And according to National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), 33 per cent of those within the workforce who were willing and looking for job were unemployed as at the close of 2020. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the informal sector...

July 13, 2021
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09Jul

UK. Chancellor Rishi Sunak hints at ruling out 8% pension rise

The chancellor has given his strongest indication yet of ruling out a predicted 8% rise in the state pension next year. Official forecasts suggest that the link with earnings growth could mean the bumper rise in the amount paid from April 2022. Rishi Sunak told the BBC a decision on pensions would be "based on fairness for pensioners and for taxpayers". Various commentators have called for an overhaul of the rules. However, groups representing older people say the government's promises to pensioners should...

July 9, 2021
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08Jul

The slow-burn crisis inside Ukraine’s pension system

Adramatic situation with state pension provision is unfolding in Ukraine. In autumn last year, Ukrainian prime minister Denys Shmyhal stated that if “decisive measures” are not taken, then in 15 years the state will not be able to pay pensions. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine inherited a so-called “solidarity pension system”: current pensioners are supposed to receive payments from pension contributions made by the working population. However, today the number of people employed in the Ukrainian economy...

July 8, 2021
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08Jul

ESG: Fad or Future?

The trend over recent years is impossible to ignore: ESG investing has been gathering steam. There have been record flows into ESG investments, companies in ESG sectors have registered impressive valuations and thousands of asset managers and owners have signed on to the UN Principles For Responsible Investment (PRI). Environmental sectors are outstripping growth in the overall economy and ESG-focused funds are outperforming their counterparts. There is a convergence of driving factors that already point to this being more...

July 8, 2021
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June 2021
30Jun

Emerging markets face a USD 5.4 trillion-per-year shortfall in savings for sustainable retirements, says Swiss Re Institute

- Emerging markets face a USD 5.4 trillion pension savings shortfall for every year of their workers' retirements, or USD 106 trillion in cumulative terms.¹ - This gap between emerging markets' pension assets and pension income need is about USD 40,000 for every worker – about 8.5 times the average annual worker's income. Read also Namibia. President signs law that consolidate regulations of all financial institutions Latin America has a pension savings gap of USD 514 billion per year, or USD 50 000 per worker on average. Brazil has the region's highest gap due to...

June 30, 2021
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22Jun

World Bank : The costs and benefits of making pension funds a target for financial repression

Financial repression is not new topic, but the striking amount of new debt taken on by governments to support their economies in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis has made the issue ever more relevant. Financial repression occurs when governments channel funds to themselves that in a deregulated market environment would go elsewhere. It usually aims to provide cheaper loans to companies and governments, reducing their burden of repayments by lowering returns to savers. Policies involved can include capital...

June 22, 2021
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17Jun

2021 pension adequacy report Current and future income adequacy in old age in the EU. Volume I

By The 2021 Pension Adequacy Report (PAR) is the fourth edition of the report, prepared every 3 years by the Social Protection Committee (SPC) and the European Commission. The report aims to present a comparative analysis of the degree to which pension systems in the EU Member States enable older people to retire with an adequate income today and in the future, reflecting pension reforms, as well as underlying changes and current or future challenges in our societies. Since 2012, the...

June 17, 2021
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16Jun

A preservation ‘revival’ will supercharge South Africa’s retirement outcomes

South Africa's retirement outcomes will improve radically if all retirement funding contributions are kept invested when fund members change jobs. Other quick wins include increasing the minimum government pension; delaying the government retirement age beyond 60 years; and refocusing the industry from saving a lump sum at retirement to providing a sustainable income in retirement. These observations were made by Dr David Knox, the lead author of the Mercer CFA Institute Global Pension Index (GPI), during a keynote address to...

June 16, 2021
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May 2021
27May

UK. Covid fails to inject interest in pensions

The pandemic has failed to spark interest in pensions according to a survey from Canada Life. It reveals that 67% of UK adults have not logged into their pension online in a year. This figure rises to 78% for those aged over 55 while 56% of adults said they haven’t received a pension statement that they read. The research also shows that 16% of those who have not logged into their pension were not interested in doing this. Fifteen percent admitted they did...

May 27, 2021
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