January 2020

Head of Canada Pension Fund Warns on Rush to Iliquid Assets

The biggest global funds should all be monitoring their investments in illiquid assets, according to the head of Canada’s largest pension fund. “I do ring the alarm bell on not to be too invested in illiquid assets,” Mark Machin, chief executive officer of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, said in a Bloomberg Television interview Monday at the World Economic Forum in Davos. “We are very comfortable with our risk models and what we would do in various lurches...

Ghana. Three-tier pension to increase retirement income security for workers – NPRA

The three-tier pension system will enhance pension benefits and increase retirement income security for workers both in the formal and informal sectors of the economy and improve on the nation's economic future. Mr Hayford Attah Krufi, Chief Executive Officer, National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA), said the three-tier pension system, which was introduced in January 2010 as part of national pensions reform process, sought to ensure that every worker received retirement and related benefits. He said the objectives of the...

Costa Rica: Increase In The Social Security Contribution Towards Disability, Old Age And Death

By Anna Karina Jiménez, Gloria Leandro the amendment to Transitory XI of the social security contribution towards Disability, Old Age and Death (IVM by its Spanish acronym) Regulation was published, accepting the recommendation of the Dialogue Board of 2017, which proposed accelerating the implementation period of the established steps for the contribution amounts of the IVM, by the Board of Directors of the Social Security Administration (CCSS) in 2005, so that, as of January 2020, instead of applying...

Climate change pushes investors to take their temperature

Policymakers are pushing investors to do more to ensure their portfolio choices help to meet the 2015 Paris Agreement to combat climate change by limiting planetary warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius, and preferably to 1.5C. A vanguard of insurers and pension funds, many of whom will be in Davos this week for the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, say part of the answer is a new “temperature score” that gives a snapshot of how their...

Biometrics and digital ID in Africa: GenKey in Niger, Securiport in CAR, new reseller partner for Daon in SA

Heading into a new decade there’s a clear theme in Africa’s digital ID sphere: looming deadlines. First up is Tanzania’s already extended biometric SIM card registration deadline of January 20 then its analogue passport deadline of January 31, the same day Ghana’s pensioners have to have their biometrics registered by in order to keep receiving their pensions. There is also plenty of supplier news: GenKey is embarking on a World Bank project in Niger, Securiport is setting up in...

Piñera’s proposal fuels debate on low pensions in Chile

The controversy over low pensions in Chile, the most serious problem identified by the protesting social movement, has increased after President Sebastian Piñera announced changes to the country's pension system. The Chilean president announced on Wednesday evening that he would submit this week a bill to Congress seeking to improve all pensions and, especially, those of women, the middle class and dependent elderly. Piñera said this bill represents a 'structural change,' with a system based on State, worker and...

Japan supports IDB’s social projects in Caribbean

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) says it has partnered with Japan's Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) in promoting and developing “socially responsible capital markets” through investments in IDB social bonds focused on education-youth-employment (EYE) in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Washington-based financial institution on Wednesday said that its social (EYE) bonds “foster human capital development from the classroom to the workplace”. “The funds raised through them will finance projects in Latin America and the Caribbean that promote effective...

Germany’s other migration wave: the pensioner exodus

As retirement neared a decade ago, German butcher Waldemar Hackstaetter took stock of his finances and concluded he and wife Hildegard couldn't afford to remain in their home country. So they moved to rural Bulgaria, where they knew their combined income of 1,200 euros (£1,026) would buy a lot more. Read Also Greek Authorities to Raise Pensions after Years of Cutbacks "The month stretched further than our pension did (in Germany) and we didn't want to become a burden to...

Public sector salaries and pensions rise in Uruguay

The Uruguayan government reported today that it decreed a salary increase of 8.7 percent for civil servants, whereas pensioners will receive similar benefits from this year. According to the presidential decree approved by the Council of Ministers, the specific figure is in line with inflation, to maintain real wages. Other data from the National Statistics Institute indicate that since 1998, civil servants of the central government have received the highest average pay rise, of nearly 40 percent. On the...

Chile’s Pinera proposes reform of pension system that has fueled protests

Chilean President Sebastian Pinera said on Wednesday that he will send a bill to Congress this week to reform the country’s pension system, which leaves many retirees living in poverty and has been one of the main complaints of protesters in months of demonstrations. Read Also Piñera’s proposal fuels debate on low pensions in Chile In a radio and television broadcast, Pinera said he will propose a 6% increase in the pension contribution per worker. Chile’s pension system is a...