March 2019

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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08Mar

China’s pension funds sufficient: official

China's overall income of the pension funds is greater than the expenditure, and the operation of the fund is in good condition, the finance minister said Thursday. "Nationwide, China can ensure that the pension is paid on time and in full," Minister of Finance Liu Kun told a press conference on the sidelines of the annual legislative session. Last year, the income of the corporate pension funds was 3.6 trillion yuan (536 billion U.S. dollars), while total expenditure stood...

March 8, 2019
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04Mar

China’s social endowment insurance covers over 523 mln people

China's social endowment insurance for rural and urban residents has covered over 523 million people by the end of 2018, according to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security (MOHRSS). Over 49 million people in poverty have benefited from the insurance program directly, MOHRSS data showed. The unemployment insurance premium has allocated 1.82 billion yuan (about 272 million U.S. dollars) of living subsidies to 402,000 migrant workers who had lost their jobs, the ministry said. The social endowment...

March 4, 2019
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03Mar

Understanding the Spatial Disparities and Vulnerability of Population Aging in China

By Yang Cheng (Beijing Normal University (BNU)), Siyao Gao (Beijing Normal University (BNU)), Shuai Li (Beijing Normal University (BNU)), Yuchao Zhang (Independent), Mark Rosenberg (Queen's University) Understanding the regional pattern of population aging in China enables rational policy making to address the challenges of inequity in social welfare and care resources among the east–central–west regions and rural–urban areas of China. This study uses census data in 2000 and 2010, and aging population ratios, annual increase rates, and spatial auto-correlation analysis...

March 3, 2019
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February 2019

26Feb

Chinese firms led global fintech investments in 2018

Chinese companies accounted for almost half of all fintech investments globally last year, according to a report by consulting firm Accenture. Global investment in financial technology (fintech) companies more than doubled to $55.3 billion in 2018, with China making up $25.5 billion in transactions. «Even with the current volatility in global markets and ongoing macroeconomic concerns, investment in the fintech sector remains strong,» said Richard Lumb, group chief executive for financial services at Accenture. Overall, the number of...

February 26, 2019
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January 2019

31Jan

Pension Milestones: China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau take key steps in 2018

Pension experts from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau exchanged views and shared best practices on pensions and retirement savings issues across the region at the 10th Annual Cross Strait Pension Forum hosted by Hong Kong Retirement Schemes Association (HKRSA). The implementation of a Central Provident Fund (CPF) in Macau and the introduction of a tax deferral scheme for private pensions in China were among key milestones in 2018 for the pension sector, according to HKRSA Chairman Janet Li....

January 31, 2019
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30Jan

Chinese city seeks young blood: how ageing Nanjing lures new talent

“Nanjing has for the first time entered the phase of an ‘aged-society’, and the city’s burden of looking after both the young and the old is getting greater,” Zhao Jun, deputy director of the local statistics bureau, said last year. The burden of social support and caregiving will face “steep growth” until 2050, he warned. Hence Nanjing’s desire to boost its population of educated under-40s such as Tan. It is not alone: last year, more than 20 Chinese cities...

January 30, 2019
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07Jan

China approves 14 new pension target funds

China has approved the country's third group of pension target funds, allowing 14 more such funds to play a bigger role in meeting the retirement planning needs of an aging population. E-Fund Management, an asset management company based in Guangzhou, obtained approvals for issuing two more such funds while 13 other fund management firms including China Southern Asset Management and China Asset Management were authorized to issue one more each, according to the China Securities Regulatory Commission. The new...

January 7, 2019
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December 2018

19Dec

How China got a head start in fintech, and why the West won’t catch up

Payment apps like Alipay and WeChat transformed daily life in China. The West won’t see a similar payments revolution—and that might even be a good thing. In 2013 I moved from Paris to Beijing to study China’s financial system. I stayed for two years and became fluent enough to translate economics books from Mandarin into English and give talks on monetary policy in Mandarin. But I never really felt I fit in until I visited again and Alipay finally approved me...

December 19, 2018
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03Dec

Can Information Influence the Social Insurance Participation Decision of China’s Rural Migrants?

By John Giles (World Bank; IZA Institute of Labor Economics; World Bank - Development Research Group (DECRG)), Xin Meng (Australian National University; IZA Institute of Labor Economics), Guochang Zhao (Southwestern University of Finance and Economics (SWUFE)) This paper uses a randomized information intervention to shed light on whether poor understanding of social insurance, both the process of enrolling and costs and benefits, drives the relatively low rates of participation in urban health insurance and pension programs among China's rural-urban migrants....

December 3, 2018
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