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May 2017

03May

US. The Obama-era workplace retirement plans that the GOP wants to kill

I’m at a loss as to why some Republicans on Capitol Hill want to block the creation of workplace retirement plans for small-business employees. We know that Social Security will soon face some serious funding issues. And with fewer companies offering pensions these days, we know that workers have to save for their own retirement. The percentage of employers still offering a traditional defined benefit plan to new hires has fallen significantly, according to advisory services firm Willis Towers Watson. In...

May 3, 2017
News, OP Ed
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02May

African pension funds see low returns in limited cross-border investment

Pension schemes are finding it difficult to make cross-border investments due to political interference, a Pan-African forum was told in Nairobi last week. Subsequently pension funds hold billions of shillings in unattractive government-linked ventures, thereby denying members higher returns as well as the opportunity to profitably contribute to development. The forum heard that most pension fund trustees are subject to political sway thus making it difficult to innovate new products or investments. Cross-border investments are often considered unpatriotic. The Making Finance Work...

May 2, 2017
News, OP Ed
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02May

Pension Reform in Asia is Extremely Difficult to Get Right

Pension reform has taken centre stage in Singapore and Hong Kong over the past two years, and more recently, in Taiwan. Just two weeks ago, chaotic scenes outside Taiwan's parliament, the Legislative Yuan, forced a planned review of to be postponed to next month. But pension reform in these three Asian Tigers have been done for different reasons; in Singapore and Hong Kong, reforms have been motivated by a lack of pension adequacy, in Taiwan, pension adequacy is not...

May 2, 2017
News, OP Ed
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April 2017

28Apr

Nigeria. Removal of PenCom Management Team, Intrigues and Legal Questions

Iyobosa Uwugiaren highlights the legal implications of the recent removal of PenCom’s management team by the federal government The seeming recent political and ethnic scheming that led to the removal of the Director General of the National Pension Commission (PenCom), Mrs. Chinelo Anohu-Amazu by President Muhammadu Buhari has continued to produce huge controversy among critical stakeholders in the pension funds administrators (PFA). The president, last week, announced Alhaji Aliyu Abdulrrahman Dikko as a replacement for Mrs. Anohu-Amazu along with other new...

April 28, 2017
News, OP Ed
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28Apr

India. Market-linked assured returns pension plan runs into hurdles

The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority’s (PFRDA) proposal to offer minimum assured returns on market-linked pension plans is facing resistance from other financial regulators and fund managers, said three people with direct knowledge of the matter, including a PFRDA official. The matter was discussed in the Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC) meeting held on 17 April. As a way out, the pension regulator has suggested an inter-regulatory committee to work out the modalities. In 2016, based on a provision in...

April 28, 2017
News, OP Ed
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24Apr

Is retirement problem the same as a savings problem?

HOUSE Resolution 67, which Donald Trump signed last week, rolls back a rule that the Labor Department finalised late last year, which would have made it easier for cities and counties to run retirement savings plans for citizens who couldn’t get them through work. It is an odd choice for Republicans to kill plans that would encourage private, voluntary, tax-deferred saving, which they tend to approve of. But a trade group for investment funds opposes the city-run retirement plans....

April 24, 2017
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24Apr

Are Asia’s Insurers and Insured Prepared for Aging Boom?

The Asia-Pacific (APAC) region is aging faster than anywhere else in the world with an expected increase of 200 million elderly people (aged 65 and above) by 2030. The aging population is driving an increase in noncommunicable diseases (NCD)—such as diabetes, cancer and heart disease—and ultimately leading to a substantial increase in insurance premiums that could threaten the affordability and sustainability of the insurance model. Increasing NCD Prevalence and its Impact Asian societies are aging at an unprecedented pace and scale,...

April 24, 2017
News, OP Ed
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21Apr

What HK can learn from Taiwan’s pension fund chaos

Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je was among those assaulted by protesters outside the parliament on Wednesday. The violent protest was triggered by President Tsai Ing-wen’s plan to reform Taiwan’s hemorrhaging pension system, which is expected to go bankrupt within three years due to excessively high benefits. Concerned that their retirement income will be cut, a large number of retired civil servants, teachers and servicemen have tried to stop lawmakers from entering the legislative complex in central Taipei. Ko became a target probably...

April 21, 2017
News, OP Ed
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19Apr

Uganda: Reforms – Will Pensioners Benefit From NSSF’s Loss of Monopoly?

The Finance Committee of Parliament has been receiving views on the proposed plans to liberalise the pension sector in Uganda. And what has been the dominant topic is ending the monopoly of the National Social Security Fund (NSSF). Indeed, a closer look at the Liberalisation Bill, there is a clause that recommends the repeal of the NSSF Act. Among the many things faulted in the country's economy is the low level of domestic savings. The low savings have been blamed for...

April 19, 2017
News, OP Ed
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18Apr

Can Pension Funds Help Solve Africa’s Infrastructure Deficit?

Despite the global focus on growth trends in Africa, one trend has flown mostly below the radar: the increase in the number and size of pension funds. In addition to evidencing increased income security, the continent’s growing number of pension funds could potentially be a new source of funding to address Africa’s infrastructure deficit, estimated by Ernst & Young to be $90 billion annually. African pension funds, which are currently estimated to hold USD 334 billion in assets, are now...

April 18, 2017
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