November 2020

Peru prepares for pension fund tender amid political turbulence

Peru’s financial services regulator SBS published rules governing a forthcoming tender for a contract to gain new workers entering the private pension fund, or AFP, system. Bids are due to be presented and opened on December 18, SBS said in a statement. The winning party will accept workers from June 1, 2021 to May 31, 2023. These will remain with the AFP for a minimum of two years. But contributors can, after 180 days, move to a new AFP...

October 2019

Irish pensions need urgent reform, industry specialist says

Irish pensions, which lag in the international rankings when it comes to sustainability, need urgent reform as the ratio of workers to retirees is set to fall dramatically over the next three decades, according to human resources consultancy Mercer. While the 2019 Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index (MMGPI) , published on Monday, has found that Ireland stands in first place for adequacy of expected pension benefits, given the “comparatively generous” State pension, it only ranks 27th when it comes...

Brazil Senate approves pension reform in first-round vote

Brazil’s Senate approved the main text of a pension reform bill in a first-round vote on Tuesday, clearing another key hurdle for the government’s bid to narrow its massive budget gap. The main text passed with a vote of 56 in favor - a comfortable margin above the 49 votes required - with 19 opposed and one abstention. Only 76 of 81 senators were present. The Senate is expected to consider amendments to the bill on Wednesday before it...

September 2019

Abe vows to improve Japan’s social welfare as population grays

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged Friday to step up efforts to reform social security as Japan faces a multitude of challenges stemming from its rapidly graying population and low birthrate. “Reform toward social security for all generations is the biggest challenge,” Abe said at the first meeting of a government panel tasked with dealing with the issues. “We will consider sustainable reforms for the entire social security system.” Abe instructed his Cabinet members, including Yasutoshi Nishimura, minister in charge...

Croatian government backs down over pension reform

Croatia’s government has backed down over plans to increase the pensionable age from 65 to 67. The announcement came right after several trade unions asked people to take the streets to force the government to hold a referendum and to consider the 700,000 signature collected under the initiative 67 is too much. Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said the government will present a bill on amendments to the Pension Insurance Act which will “respect the will of citizens.” However, it...

Croatia’s trade unions want referendum on pension reform

Trade unions in Croatia are urging the government to hold a referendum on planned pension reforms, which would increase the retirement age from 65 to 67. The new law will also include a 3.6 per cent pension reduction for every year of early retirement and the trade union campaign has called for this to be reduced to 2.4 per cent. “There must be a referendum because the will of the citizens must be respected,” said the leader of the...

Zimbabwe. IPEC reforms progressive

The Insurance and Pensions Commission (IPEC) says it has made “significant progress” on institutional and regulatory reforms in keeping with recommendations of the Justice Smith-led Commission of Inquiry. The Commission of Inquiry focused on the conversion of insurance and pensions values from Zimbabwe dollar to the United States dollar, but it also included other reform proposals. Although progress had been recorded on other aspects of the pensions reform agenda, IPEC pensions director Josphat Kakwere said development of the proposed...

August 2019

Informality and the Challenge of Pension Adequacy: Outlook and Reform Options for Peru

By Christoph Freudenberg, Frederik Toscani Past reforms have put the Peruvian pension system on a largely fiscally sustainable path, but the system faces important challenges in providing adequate pension levels for a large share of the population. Using administrative microdata at the affiliate level, we project replacement rates in the defined benefit (DB) and defined contribution (DC) pillars over the next 30 years and simulate the impact of various reform scenarios on the average level and distribution of pensions. In...

May 2019

Diagnóstico del sistema de pensiones mexicano y opciones para reformarlo

Por Azuara Herrera, Oliver; Bosch, Mariano; García-Huitrón, Manuel; Kaplan, David S.; Silva Porto, María Teresa Este documento contiene un análisis del estado que guardan los sistemas de pensiones en México, incluyendo los sistemas contributivos, sistemas estatales, municipales, universidades públicas, así como los sistemas no contributivos. El documento enumera y describe los retos principales que los sistemas enfrentarán en los siguientes años, incluyendo: problemas del funcionamiento institucional; baja cobertura; poca sostenibilidad y retos fiscales; y, fuertes inequidades...

March 2019

Reforming Social Security: The Challenge of Income Inequality

By David W. Rasmussen (Pepper Institute on Aging and Public Policy) Objective: This article examines the role Social Security plays in alleviating poverty among retirees in the context of threats to its solvency.  Method: Examining long-term employment trends, declining access to defined benefit pensions and saving behavior can determine if in the more future Social Security beneficiaries are likely to be poor.  Results: Labor market trends driven by technical change, global competition and increasing demand for services indicate that more future retirees...