August 2020

20Aug

A step closer to retirement reform in South Africa

By Jerry Botha, managing partner, and Jean Du Toit, head of tax technical at Tax Consulting South Africa As announced in the Budget Speech, any South African leaving in future will be subject to a much stricter process from 1 March 2021 onwards. But there was also a surprise 3-year lockup announcement for anyone with a South African pension fund, seeking to leave South Africa. This appears a sign of things to come for private pensions in South Africa....

August 20, 2020
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20Aug

Australia. PM flags pension could rise even though cost of living has fallen

Pensioners might be experiencing a fall in their cost of living but Prime Minister Scott Morrison has signalled they won't miss out on an increase in their pensions. Pensioners saw a 1.4 per cent fall in the cost of living in the June quarter and a 0.6 per cent fall in the cost of living in the six months to June this year. However, a parliamentary committee heard this week that the indexation formula, which uses the cost...

August 20, 2020
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19Aug

South Africa. Enoch Godongwana: Prescribed assets won’t be used to bailout struggling SOEs

RYK VAN NIEKERK: The contentious issue of prescribed assets was a prominent topic of discussion during an ANC webinar on Monday night regarding the party’s economic policy. During the webinar Enoch Godongwana, the head of the ANC’S economic transformation subcommittee, strongly denied that proposed changes to Regulation 28 are aimed to force pension funds to bail out struggling state-owned enterprises, or to fund a state-owned bank. Enoch Godongwana is on the line. Enoch, thank you so much for joining...

August 19, 2020
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19Aug

Kenya. Urgent: Protect pension funds

How safe is your pension? I think Kenyans who contribute money to individual pension schemes are badly exposed. Last week, a whistle-blower, who is an employee of a leading pensions administrator, visited my office, where he proceeded to dump a heap of documents including multi-year audited accounts, balances of member contributions and statements of individual contributors. The whistle-blower’s intention was to show me how the directors of the company had devised clever schemes to steal hard-earned savings of unwitting...

August 19, 2020
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19Aug

ESG head exits €92bn Danish pension fund giant

PFA Asset Management’s head of ESG, Andreas Stang, has left the firm to join insurance and pension company Topdanmark. As part of his new role, Stang will take charge of responsible investments and ESG integration. Topdanmark said his appointment is part of its increasing focus on responsibility and sustainability. He has been head of ESG at PFA Asset Management for over four years. The group oversees DKK 688bn, which equates to around €92bn. Prior to that he was chairman...

August 19, 2020
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19Aug

MetLife Board Dodges Lawsuit Over $500 Million Annuity Error

MetLife Inc.'s board doesn’t have to face oversight claims over the insurer’s practice of downplaying its liabilities by wrongly counting pensioners as dead if they didn’t respond to its letters, instead of consulting official records, a Delaware Chancery Court judge ruled. The shareholder derivative lawsuit “supports an inference of failure of prudence on the part of the defendants; and a lack of imagination perhaps,” Vice Chancellor Sam Glasscock III wrote Monday. But “the plaintiffs require too many attenuated inferences...

August 19, 2020
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18Aug

Canada Pension Plan Returns 5.6% in First Quarter

The investment portfolio of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), also known as CPP Investments, returned a robust 5.6% net of costs during its first quarter of fiscal 2021 ending June 30, raising the fund’s total asset value to C$434.4 billion ($327.93 billion) from C$409.6 billion at the end of March. The fund also reported earning five- and 10-year annualized net nominal returns of 8.9% and 10.7%, respectively. The fund said its active management strategy and resulting diversified...

August 18, 2020
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18Aug

World’s largest sovereign wealth fund reports $21 billion loss after ‘volatile’ first half of the year

Norway’s huge pension fund — the largest sovereign wealth fund in the world — reported negative returns for the first half of the year on Tuesday, citing “major fluctuations” in equity markets. Read also Canada Pension Plan Returns 5.6% in First Quarter The Government Pension Fund Global said it returned -3.4% for the first six months of 2020, equivalent to -188 billion kroner (-$21.3 billion). Read also MetLife Board Dodges Lawsuit Over $500 Million Annuity Error “There were major fluctuations in...

August 18, 2020
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18Aug

US. Pension Debt Expected to Surge Due to COVID-19 Volatility

Underfunded defined benefit (DB) pension plans can expect to see their liabilities surge over the next several months due to volatility from the COVID-19 pandemic. According to research from Moody’s Investors Service, companies are on pace to see a 6% increase in total adjusted debt in 2020 as modest asset returns fail to offset tumbling discount rates. Moody’s said in a recent report that 2020 has so far “proved to be a roller coaster ride” for the two drivers...

August 18, 2020
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18Aug

Verod takes on Nigerian pensions operator

AXA Mansard Pension is the latest in a series of Nigerian investments by Verod Capital Management. West African private equity investor Verod Capital Management has taken over Nigerian pension administrator AXA Mansard Pension, following other investments made in the country’s financial services sector by Verod in recent years. AXA Mansard Pension operates saving accounts and pension funds on behalf of private and public sector employees, with the deal subject to regulatory approval by the National Pension Commission. Formerly known...

August 18, 2020
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