April 2019

22Apr

Canada. Pension protection should be federal priority

With a budget light on details, federal government has an opportunity to protect pensioners Pension protection for Canadians is long overdue. When a company becomes insolvent and its pension is underfunded, pensioners are powerless to intervene and secure their pensions. Sears, Nortel and other corporate pensioners experienced sharp reductions in their annual pension income after those companies failed. In March of this year, Imperial Tobacco filed for protection under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA). Yet another group of...

April 22, 2019
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08Apr

Canada’s CDPQ to Buy Petrobras Pipe Unit for $8.6 Billion

Petroleo Brasileiro SA agreed to sell its 90 percent stake in a natural gas pipeline unit to France’s Engie SA and Canadian pension fund Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec for $8.6 billion. Engie and the Caisse prevailed after multiple rounds of bidding for the unit, known as TAG, beating out Macquarie Group Ltd. and a joint bid from EIG Global Energy Partners and Mubadala Development Co. It is the biggest-ever single asset sale for Petrobras, whose new...

April 8, 2019
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03Apr

Financial health of defined benefit pension plans rebounds to start 2019

The solvency positions of Canadian defined benefit pension plans rebounded along with stock markets in the first quarter of 2019, once again nearing 100%, according to Aon plc (NYSE:AON), the leading global professional services firm providing a broad range of risk, retirement and health solutions. The late-2018 equity selloff meant pension plans’ financial health capped last year in decline, but the first-quarter equity rally saw the Aon Median Solvency Ratio erase those losses. Quote: “The first quarter was very...

April 3, 2019
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March 2019

25Mar

Canada. A long-term fund with $370 billion under management shares some investing ‘themes’

Canada’s national pension fund invests for the long-term, its CEO told CNBC on Sunday, and he named trends that are helping to guide its decision-making. “We’re trying to go deep on certain areas where we see long-term trends and try to identify the best parts of those themes to invest in, companies to invest in, to express that view,” Mark Machin, president and CEO of Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, told CNBC’s Martin Soong at the China Development Forum...

March 25, 2019
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19Mar

Canada’s Biggest Pension Fund Mulls Opening First China Office

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, which manages around C$368.5 billion ($277 billion), is considering opening its first office in China as it seeks greater exposure to the world’s second-largest economy. Canada’s largest pension fund investor could open an office in Beijing as soon as next year, Hong Kong-based head of Asia Pacific Suyi Kim said in an interview this month. Staff there would then work closely with CPPIB’s 130 employees in Hong Kong, which have helped to invest C$42...

March 19, 2019
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February 2019

23Feb

Pension Funds with Automatic Enrollment Schemes: Lessons for Emerging Economies

By Heinz P. Rudolph (The World Bank) Since the introduction of the KiwiSaver scheme in New Zealand in 2006, several countries have implemented, or are in the process of implementing, voluntary funded pension systems with automatic enrollment features. Since most of the literature has focused on countries with the common law tradition, including the United Kingdom and the United States, this note analyzes cases of countries with the civil code tradition, including Turkey, Poland, the Russian Federation, Chile, Brazil, and...

February 23, 2019
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22Feb

Canada: Using benefits, pension programs to maximize CSR policies

Though the term ‘corporate social responsibility’ varies across companies and countries, it’s generally considered to be a form of organizational self-regulation focusing on an employer’s approach to sustainability across a variety of topics, such as environmental efforts, human rights, corporate governance, health and safety and economic development. Unilever’s sustainable living plan sets out ambitious targets for its environmental footprint and social impact, with two pillars focused on the health and well-being of its employees and its customers. “The first...

February 22, 2019
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17Feb

Intergenerational Fairness: Will Our Kids Live Better than We Do

By Parisa Mahboubi (C.D. Howe Institute) While large government deficits and debt raise concerns regarding intergenerational fairness, their longterm intergenerational impacts can significantly differ, depending on demographic shifts and future economic policy. In particular, population aging in Canada has accelerated during the past decade due to declining fertility and improving life expectancy. This demographic transition poses new fiscal challenges since it dampens growth in government revenue while putting pressure on government spending, particularly in healthcare and public pensions. Generational accounting...

February 17, 2019
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15Feb

Canada Pension Plan posts 1.1 percent return in latest quarter

The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), Canada’s biggest public pension fund, on Thursday reported a net return of 1.1 percent on its investments in the third quarter of its fiscal year. The CPPIB, which manages Canada’s national pension fund and invests on behalf of 20 million Canadians, said its net assets totaled C$368.5 billion ($278 billion) at Dec. 31, 2018, compared with C$368.3 billion three months earlier. For the nine months to Dec. 31, the CPPIB posted a...

February 15, 2019
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03Feb

Pensions at Work: Socially Responsible Investment of Union-Based Pension Funds

By Jack Quarter,‎ Isla Carmichael,‎ Sherida Ryan Pension funds have come to play an increasingly important role within the new economy. According to Statistics Canada, in 2006, trusteed pension funds in Canada had $836 billion of assets and represented the savings of 4.6 million Canadian workers. Pensions at Work is a unique collection of papers that uses a labour perspective to deal with the socially responsible investment of pension funds. Featuring leading Canadian and international scholars, it builds on existing scholarship on...

February 3, 2019
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