September 2020

15Sep

Demographic Obstacles to European Growth

By Thomas F. Cooley, Espen Henriksen, Charlie Nusbaum Since the early 1990's the growth rates of the four largest European economies -- France, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom -- have slowed. This persistent slowdown suggests a low-frequency structural change is at work. A combination of longer individual life expectancies and declining fertility have led to gradually aging populations. Growth accounting identifies the following five sources of economic growth: total factor productivity, capital deepening, labor supply on...

September 15, 2020
Aging, Articles, Labor Market, , ,
Read more...
11Sep

UK:Workers ‘more at risk’ as they want to work past retirement date

A global retirement survey conducted in 15 countries by Aegon has revealed that workers in Britain could be exposed to lifestyle-changing financial risk later in life as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the survey, workers in the UK are less likely to want to retire earlier than planned but almost a third of them have no back-up plan in case they are unable to do so due to ill health. Only about 30% have a...

September 11, 2020
News, Slider, , , , ,
Read more...
11Sep

2019 World Pensions Forum Held in EU Capital Before G7 Summit

By M. Nicolas J. Firzli The 8th World Pensions Forum was held 23-24 May: 130 pension executives and supranational experts representing $12 trillion in combined assets convened in Brussels to discuss “Effective Asset Ownership”. The Forum was pleased to note that some of our ideas were taken up by the Finnish presidency of the Council of Europe and the G7 Steering Committee – notably the empowerment of women entrepreneurs and the notion of institutional co-investment in private equity and sustainable...

September 11, 2020
Articles, Pension design, Regulation, Reports, System Sustainability, ,
Read more...
11Sep

Gender Gap in Pension Income: Cross-Country Analysis and Role of Gender Attitudes

By Anna Veremchuk, University of Tartu The aim of this paper is to study the gender pension gap in Europe based on the newest EU-SILC data from the 2018 wave. The contribution of the paper is twofold. First, it provides evidence on factors shaping the gender pension gap in a large number of EU countries. Second, it analyses the relationship between the pension gap and: (1) the coverage of occupational (second pillar) pensions and (2) gender attitudes. The main factor contributing to gender...

September 11, 2020
Adequacy, Articles, , , ,
Read more...
08Sep

Managers Of $40 Trillion Make Plans To Decarbonize The World

The Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC) is a European group of global pension funds and investment managers, totaling over 1,200 members in 16 countries, who control more than $40 trillion in assets (€33 trillion). They have drawn up a plan to cut carbon in their portfolios to net-zero and hope other investors will join them. Read also One of Sweden’s Biggest Investors Starts ESG Pressure Campaign The group’s mission is to mobilize capital for a global low-carbon transition...

September 8, 2020
News, Slider, , ,
Read more...
03Sep

Europe needs a fully fledged capital markets union – now more than ever

The capital markets union (CMU) is one of the cornerstones of the euro area's financial architecture. But progress in developing it has been slow. Since the agreement on establishing CMU in 2015, many subprojects have been launched, and some completed, but European capital markets are still far from being fully integrated. Despite the fact that the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis has made CMU more important than ever, progress has unfortunately slowed, notwithstanding the substantial headway made on the fiscal side...

September 3, 2020
News, Slider, , ,
Read more...
02Sep

European Pensions Lead Adoption of ESG Investments

While the United States is beginning to take notice of investments backed by environmental, social and governance principles, the majority of European pensions have already adopted the ESG theme. According to Mercer’s most recent European Asset Allocation Survey, the majority of European pension funds now incorporate environmental, social, and governance risks into their investments, compared to just two years ago when less than half even considered ESG as an option, Chief Investment Officer reports. The survey results showed that...

September 2, 2020
News, Slider, ,
Read more...

August 2020

14Aug

Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on a pan-European Personal Pension Product

By EIOPA THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION, Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, Having regard to Regulation (EU) 2019/1238 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019 on a pan-European Personal Pension Product (PEPP)1 , and in particular the fourth subparagraph of Article 28(5), third subparagraph of Article 30(2), third subparagraph of Article 33(3), second subparagraph of Article 36(2), third subparagraph of Article 37(2), third subparagraph of Article 45(3) and the third subparagraph...

August 14, 2020
Books, Pension design, Regulation, Reports, ,
Read more...
14Aug

EIOPA finalises the regulation of the pan-European Personal Pension Product

Today the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) delivered to the European Commission a set of draft Regulatory and Implementing Technical Standards and its advice on Delegated Acts to implement the framework for the design and delivery of the Pan-European Personal Pension Product (PEPP). Read also Chilean Central Bank Measures Reduce Banks’ Risks from Pension Withdrawal EIOPA’s proposed legal instruments follow the objective to unlock the potential of the European personal pension market by setting the right incentives for...

August 14, 2020
News, Slider, ,
Read more...
11Aug

Switzerland. Pension reform initiative runs out of steam at early stage

The campaigners announced they had failed to collect the required minimum number of signatures and saw no chances of doing so by the deadline in early October. “Without any doubt I have been miscalculating a few things. The coronavirus did the rest for us,” said the main promoter of the initiative. Josef Bachmann said citizens were aware of the flaws in the current system, but under the restrictions imposed to fight the pandemic, it was much more difficult to...

August 11, 2020
News, Slider, , ,
Read more...