January 2022
28Jan

UK. Pension professionals demand dashboards and climate action

Pensions dashboards and climate change action ranked as the joint top priority for Society of Pension Professionals members, according to a new survey. The SPP’s survey, which polled around 7,000 pension professionals, questioned members on where they wanted the government and regulators to focus their energies over the next 12 months and the next three to five years. Almost a third of members placed the dashboards rollout as their top choice for the coming year, with 61 per cent of members...

January 28, 2022
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27Jan

UK. Can the FCA tackle greenwashing?

For those who care about environmental, social and governance considerations, watching the glacial progress towards standardised ESG disclosures has been frustrating. There are more working groups, task forces, frameworks and roadmaps than you could shake a stick at (I have never tried shaking a stick at a working group, and it would probably get me fired, but you get the idea). Dare I suggest that we might even spare some sympathy for the Financial Conduct Authority, which has the job of...

January 27, 2022
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26Jan

UK. Government confirms annual public service pension increase rate

The government has announced the rates of indexation and revaluation that will be applied to public service pensions in April 2022. In a written statement, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Simon Clarke, noted that public service pensions are required by law to increase annually in line with the state pension. Public service pensions will therefore increase in line with the 3.1 per cent rise in Consumer Prices Index (CPI) on 11 April 2022, except for those that have been in payment...

January 26, 2022
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25Jan

UK. Pension transfer activity hits lowest level since 2018

An annualised rate of 50 members out of every 10,000 transferred their pensions in December according to the XPS Pensions Group's transfer activity index — the lowest rate since XPS started tracking this activity four years ago. Head of member options Mark Barlow said a "slump" in transfer activity was common over the festive period. "But this is the lowest rate of transfers we have seen since we started the index in 2018," he said. "Although it's unlikely to be affecting...

January 25, 2022
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24Jan

UK university pension scheme to add climate focus to 5 billion stg of AUM

Britain's Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) will add a climate focus to 5 billion pounds ($6.77 billion) of its assets under management to meet climate targets, it said on Monday. The climate focus will initially reduce emissions compared to the broad equity market by at least 30%, and further cut its carbon intensity by 7% each following year, USS said in a statement. USS, which has 82 billion pounds in total assets under management and is one of Britain's biggest pension schemes,...

January 24, 2022
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21Jan

UK. MPs criticise ‘shameful’ underpaying of state pensions

The long-term underpayment of thousands of state pensioners, mainly widows, divorcees and women who rely on their husband’s pension contributions for some of their pension, is a “shameful shambles”, according to the public spending watchdog. About 134,000 people have had their state pension underpaid to the tune of £1bn, according to a Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) estimate. The vast majority of those affected are women who should have had their pension topped up when their husband retired even if...

January 21, 2022
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20Jan

UK. More universities join USS strike

The University and College Union has secured the support of yet more institutions in its campaign for strike action over member benefit cuts in the Universities Superannuation Scheme. The UCU balloted its members in November over strike action in response to proposals agreed between the USS trustee and Universities UK, the group representing 340 USS employers, over the scheme’s controversial 2020 valuation. The union has argued that the agreement, which includes covenant support measures that UUK says are necessary to stave...

January 20, 2022
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19Jan

Pensions dashboards should have interactive features, says ABI

Pensions dashboards should have interactive features to meet younger people’s digital needs, according to the Association of British Insurers (ABI). The ABI commissioned research which found that seven in 10 working people would like dashboards to be interactive. The industry has been working on dashboards which will allow people to see all their pensions in one place for several years. Younger people were more likely than those of retirement age to want options which are not just “read-only”, including using modelling tools...

January 19, 2022
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18Jan

UK. Lack of guidance for pension savers risks freedoms ‘failure’, MPs warn

A Work and Pensions Committee report calls on Government and regulators to play more active role in supporting savers to make better decisions about their money. The Government should commit to trial of automatic Pension Wise guidance appointments and set a target of at least 60% needed to boost uptake of pensions guidance and advice Automatic appointments with the Pension Wise service should be trialled as part of a renewed commitment from the Government to support people to make better decisions...

January 18, 2022
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17Jan

UK. Expert calls on pension funds to fill fintech growth funding cap

The author of a major review of UK fintech has called on pension funds to back British entrepreneurs and fill a major growth funding gap in the sector just as government reviews whether to relax restrictions on pension fund investment. Ron Kalifa, who masterminded the government-commissioned Kalifa Review of Fintech last year, told City AM that pension funds have an opportunity to help British entrepreneurs grow their business domestically and drive job creation rather than selling at the growth stage. He...

January 17, 2022
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