October 2019

17Oct

UK. What does the Brexit deal mean for your personal finances?

At long last, the Government has secured an exit deal with the European Union.  Prime Minister Boris Johnson said this morning he has secured a “great new deal” with the EU which “takes back control”.  There is still a long way to go before it is agreed – the details are currently not clear, the legal wording is still being worked on and the deal will need to be passed by both the EU and British parliament – but it is undoubtedly a step forward. The key benefit...

October 17, 2019
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16Oct

US. So Why Are GE’s Pensions So Underfunded, Anyway?

Last week, General Electric announced the impending freeze of its pension plans to new accrual, for salaried workers and executives. And, as much as we’re accustomed to the stories of woefully-underfunded public pensions and multi-employer pensions, it’s worth taking a look at the situation at GE, and asking the question, why were GE’s plans so underfunded that they felt it necessary to take this step? (And, yes, part of the answer is simply, “everyone’s doing it” and per the...

October 16, 2019
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11Oct

Low fees, payouts starve Uganda pensions industry

Latest data compiled by Uganda’s pension industry regulator has revealed shifts in market share rankings posted by local fund managers, underlying revenue risks and skewed opportunities enjoyed by big banks against small peers in terms of access to fat, short term deposits supplied by pension schemes. Read also Zimbabwe. Pensioners to get express cash The data shows Sanlam Investments Uganda Ltd recorded the highest share of pension scheme assets under management between April and June 2019, amounting to Ush822.4 billion...

October 11, 2019
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11Oct

GE’s Not Alone: 25 Companies That Owe $1 Trillion In Pensions

General Electric is getting out of the pension business — and is just the latest company to do so. But such efforts by S&P 500 companies only go so far. They're still on the hook for hundreds of billions in pension obligations. Twenty-five S&P 500 companies, including International Business Machines (IBM), GE (GE) and General Motors (GM), collectively face $1 trillion in pension benefit obligations, according to an Investor's Business Daily analysis of projections from S&P Global Market Intelligence....

October 11, 2019
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07Oct

China’s Ministry of Finance transfers more assets to boost pension system

China’s Ministry of Finance is continuing its efforts to boost the country’s creaking pension system by transferring its stakes in financial state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to the social security fund, reported Caixin. Hong Kong- and Shanghai-listed Bank of Communications Co. Ltd., one of China’s five largest state-owned banks by assets, announced that the finance ministry will transfer 10% of its shares in the bank to the government-backed National Council for Social Security Fund. The shares were worth RMB 10.7 billion...

October 7, 2019
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September 2019

27Sep

Pensions and Early Retirement: The Case of The Public Servants in Uganda

By Kibs Boaz Muhanguzi Retirement, if influenced by pensions, can be a good manifestation of how the government can use the pension system as a fiscal instrument to achieve some socioeconomic targets. Borrowing intuition from the postulations of disengagement theory of aging that when the elderly retire, they free up positions in paid work for the entry of young individuals, this study investigates the role of incentives on early retirement. The high levels of unemployment in Uganda amidst the...

September 27, 2019
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10Sep

US. Corporate Pension Funding Moves Closer to Worrisome 80% Level

U.S. corporate pensions felt the pain of low bond yields in August. The retirement funds for U.S. corporations had just 82% of the money they expect to need over time for pensioners as of August, down four percentage points from July, according to a statement from consulting firm Mercer on Monday. The steep drop stemmed from long-term bond yields plunging to record lows, which effectively increases the current value of companies’ future obligations. Declines in U.S. equities didn’t help...

September 10, 2019
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05Sep

The road to bankruptcy: Romania’s fiscal deficit to reach 8 pct of GDP by 2022 if the new pension law is implemented, IMF says

The new pension law could double Romania’s already sizable fiscal deficit, which could reach 8 percent of GDP by 2022, and raise external financing needs to excessive levels if it will be implemented as is without offsetting policy measures, International Monetary Fund (IMF) experts warn. For 2019, IMF estimates a fiscal deficit of 3.7 percent of GDP in Romania. The government has enacted a new law that will double the pillar I pension benefits by 2022, without yet spelling...

September 5, 2019
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04Sep

Ecuadorian Retirees demand Payment of their Pensions

Dozens of retirees from the National Electricity Corporation (CNEL) today demanded that President Lenin Moreno's government pay their pensions through the Ecuadorian Social Security Institute (IESS). New demonstrators joined the pensioner's hunger strike in Rocafuerte Square, in the center of Guayaquil, about 267 kilometers from the capital, who are claiming that they have received incomplete pension payments for the past decade. In the opinion of several strikers, the IESS calculated the retirement pension based on the unified basic salary...

September 4, 2019
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03Sep

Top 20 pension funds’ AUM declines for first time in seven years

Assets under management (AUM) at the world's 300 largest pension funds fell in value by 0.4% to a total of US$18 trillion in 2018, in sharp contrast to an increase of 15.1% in 2017, according to the latest World 300 research from the Thinking Ahead Institute. The research, conducted in conjunction with Pensions & Investments, a leading U.S. investment newspaper, shows that the value of the top 20 pension funds' AUM fell by 1.6% in 2018, equating to 40.7%...

September 3, 2019
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