August 2018

China’s youth not prepared for retirement

China's younger generation are largely unprepared for retirement and have limited understanding of pensions, a recent study shows. That's according to a joint online survey taken earlier this year by Ant Financial and Fidelity International. About 28,400 people took part in the survey, 75 percent of whom were aged between 18 and 34. As many as 54 percent of respondents said they have made no investment or saving plans for retirement. The respondents expect an average retirement age of 58 years, yet...

China. New pension target securities funds get the green light

China has just approved 14 Chinese asset managers to float pension target securities investment funds, a move to improve A-share market liquidity and offer the nation's middle-income earners more diversified pension management solutions. China Asset Management Co Ltd, China Southern Asset Management Co Ltd, Bosera Asset Management Co Ltd, E Fund Management Co Ltd and 10 other asset management companies became the first batch to receive regulatory approval, according to the China Securities Regulatory Commission on Monday. People close to China...

China is trying to talk its way out of a growing problem with its military veterans

BEIJING (Reuters) - A senior Chinese officer appealed to military veterans on Tuesday not to take complaints about their treatment to the streets and to "rationally" lodge appeals for redress. At the annual meeting of parliament in March, China set up a Ministry of Veterans Affairs as part of a broader government reshuffle, aiming to better look after former soldiers whose complaints about poor treatment have flared into scattered protests in recent years. In February 2017, Chinese military veterans staged two...

May 2018

How China can build a more sustainable financial system

Chinese investors should integrate environmental, social and governance concerns into their investment decisions in order to fulfil their duties to their beneficiaries and support the development of China’s Ecological Civilization, according to a new report. Investor duties should also reflect and align with the Chinese government’s Guidelines for Establishing a Green Financial System, the report found. Investor Duties and ESG Integration in China, published in March, is the joint work of the UN Environment Finance Initiative (UNEP FI), the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI),...

March 2018

China. 5 major changes set for pension insurance system

China's urban and rural residents pension insurance system, covering more than 500 million people, will meet five major changes, four years after it was established in 2014, according to a report by chinanews.com. The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and the Ministry of Finance released a guideline on Monday, indicating that the urban and rural residents pension insurance system, having not been established for a long time, still has some problems and needs to be improved. The security level...

February 2018

China’s pension funds stable, sufficient for 17.3 months

China's social security fund is stable overall despite deficits in certain places, said You Jun, vice minister of Human Resources and Social Security at a press conference on Monday. The total social security fund -- which consists of five major social security insurance programs, including medical and unemployment -- stood at nearly 7.6 trillion yuan at the end of last year, compared with 6.6 trillion yuan in 2016 and 5.9 trillion yuan in 2015. Pension funds drew 3.27 trillion yuan in...

January 2018

Fidelity International eyes mutual, pension fund business in China

Fidelity International, which launched three private funds in China in the past eight months, said on Thursday it would explore opportunities in the Chinese mutual and pension fund market. Fidelity was the first global asset manager to be awarded China’s private fund management licence a year ago, as the country gradually opens up its $2.2 trillion (1.59 trillion pounds) fund industry to global asset managers. Other managers have followed suit. Fidelity said it aimed to launch a larger variety of funds...

China. THEKEY: A New Ecosystem Of Identity Verification For The Future

The blockchain has ushered in the third generation of the internet and with it, an entirely new set of requirements to participate and function in a worldwide economy and distributed online ecosystem. One of the most promising new technologies in the blockchain space is a Chinese company called THEKEY (www.THEKEY.vip) who have situated themselves as a leader in bringing your personal verifiable identity onto the internet. A decentralized app, THEKEY is built on the Neo blockchain and will provide...

China. More provinces mull entrusted pension investment: official

Three provinces and one autonomous region are planning for entrusted pension investment to deal with mounting payment pressure, a social security official said Wednesday. Gansu, Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces as well as Tibet Autonomous Region are considering entrusting some of their pension funds, totaling 150 billion yuan (23.05 billion U.S. dollars), to the National Council for Social Security Fund (NCSSF) for professional investment, according to Tang Xiaoli, an official of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security. China is facing...

Insurers adapting to ageing Hong Kong and China with policies that cover longer lives

Ageing populations in Hong Kong and mainland China are leading the insurance industry to extend the age range of life products and to include cover for more diseases and for mental illness, according to a senior executive at reinsurer Swiss Re. Robert Burr, the managing director and head of life and health reinsurance client markets in Asia, told the South China Morning Post in an interview that statistics showed 25 per cent of people born today would be able to live to...