September 2017

19Sep

APG and E Fund Management will launch the world’s first China Sustainable and Responsible Focus Investment Strategy

APG, the largest European pension asset manager and administrator, together with E Fund, the third largest fund manager in China, announced today that it will launch the first concentrated equities strategy that invests in ChinaA-shares and adheres to sustainable & responsible investing frameworks and criteria. "APG is a firm believer and promoter of responsible investing. We are happy to partner with E Fund to establish this milestone to embrace our role and duty as responsible long term asset manager, for the benefit of our clients....

September 19, 2017
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19Sep

Kenya: Retirement Body in List for Top Award in Africa

A Johannesburg-based international investment research and communications group has nominated Kenya's Retirement Benefits Authority (RBA) for its 2017 top award. The Ai Capital Market Index Series Awards look at Africa's best bourses and the role played by individual pension regulatory agencies in promoting investments within their countries. Judges consider how investments by various entities support the development of Africa's capital markets, promotion of pension fund investments in Africa as well as stimulating increased pensions fund investments and membership. Africa investor...

September 19, 2017
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19Sep

Mexico readies bill to regulate fast-growing fintech industry

Mexico would regulate its fast-growing financial technology sector, including firms that use crypto-currencies like bitcoin, to protect consumers and spur competition, under a proposed bill seen by Reuters. The proposed legislation, which Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto said this month would be unveiled in the Senate before Sept. 20, seeks to ensure financial stability and defend against money laundering and financing of extremists. The new measures will allow Mexico to join a small list of countries, including the United States...

September 19, 2017
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18Sep

Portugal. Government wants to squeeze foreign pensioners too

Portugal’s finance minister, Mário Centeno, acknowledged on Friday that the government has been looking into introducing a minimum income tax bracket for foreign pensioners for some months, to ensure a “good tax relationship” with other European countries. Following an informal meeting of euro zones finance ministers in Talin, when he was asked about an article in Friday's edition of business newspaper Jornal de Negócios saying the government was studying changes to the income tax rules for non-habitual residents because of...

September 18, 2017
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18Sep

UK. Expats face post-Brexit pension ‘cliff edge’ warns influential MP

The chair of the influential Treasury committee has called for urgent action to address the risk pension payments to expatriates from UK insurers may be blocked after Brexit. Nicky Morgan (pictured), chair of the influential committee of MPs, has written to the chancellor, to draw attention to the issue and ask if it would be addressed in the upcoming round of talks between the UK and EU, the Guardian reports. The problem centres around passporting rights, which allow UK and...

September 18, 2017
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15Sep

Drawing Down Retirement Savings – Do Pensions, Taxes and Government Transfers Matter Much for Optimal Decisions?

By Bonnie-Jeanne MacDonald (Independent), Richard J. Morrison (Independent), Marvin Avery (Human Resources and Skills Development), Lars Osberg (Dalhousie University) This paper examines the importance of pensions (employment and social security), taxes and government transfers for alternative retirement savings drawdown strategies, based on Canadian evidence. Using as examples single elderly Canadians at the 10th, median and 90th percentiles of the income distribution, we use a lifetime utility framework to evaluate an illustrative set of six popular drawdown strategies. Our longitudinal dynamic...

September 15, 2017
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15Sep

Why UBS Is Bringing Its Climate-Proofing Strategy to Proxy Voting

UBS Group AG increased its backing of shareholder climate resolutions this year, according to Christopher Greenwald, head of sustainable investing research at UBS Asset Management. UBS, which has more than $1 trillion of its $3.7 trillion in assets under management in sustainable and responsible strategies, made the firm-wide change after a collaboration with a client. The Swiss firm joins other asset managers, including State Street, Blackrock and Vanguard, that are stepping up their focus on climate change in discussions with...

September 15, 2017
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15Sep

South Africa’s pension fund chief says allegations he misused funds are spurious

The head of South Africa’s state-owned pension fund dismissed as spurious allegations made by a newspaper on Friday that he had misused funds and improperly raised salaries for some executives. Daniel Matjila has been chief executive officer of Public Investment Corporation (PIC), which manages nearly 2 trillion rand ($152.30 billion) of civil servants’ pensions, since 2014. He told Reuters he would meet board members later on Friday to discuss the allegations made by newspaper Business Day. “These are spurious allegations,”...

September 15, 2017
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15Sep

Greece. Private sector shouldering the burden, industrialists say

The union of Greek industrialists (SEV) has painted a dire picture of the state of the Greek pension system, saying basically that it is running on empty, and that the country’s beleaguered private sector has taken on a disproportionate share of the burden to support pensioners and the public sector. Given Greece’s low birth rates and rising life expectancy, the pension system is set to come under immense pressure in the coming decades. In its weekly report published on Thursday, SEV...

September 15, 2017
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14Sep

Canada. Québec’s largest pension fund turns to carbon budgets to address climate risks

Investment managers at Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec have a new tool to help them account for the increased financial risks posed by climate change: Carbon budgets. These “budgets” allow managers to allocate a specific amount of carbon-dioxide emissions that might result from an investment decision, effectively setting limits on the carbon footprint of a manager’s portfolio. Within the carbon budget, “you have to make choices as to where you invest and how you invest because what we...

September 14, 2017
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