April 2017

Some granularity on the Mexican pension industry

BlackRock has published a research report about pension funds in Mexico, a report produced as part of its broader research project looking into the state of the pension fund industry around the globe. It shows that the cause of alternatrive investments as a group is the cause of diversification for institutional investrors whose long-tailed liabilities impose upon them long temporal horizons. The Mexico report explains that the country’s Administradoras de Fondos Para el Retiro (AFOREs) operate in a regulatory environment...

March 2017

Mexico. Generous payments for Pemex pensioners

Some of the state oil company’s generous pensions have come to light through a freedom-of-information request, which found that 14 retired Pemex officials are receiving over 2 million pesos per year, greater than the annual salary of Mexico’s 128 Senators. The chosen few also receive over 6,000 pesos a month for expenses: gasoline, natural gas and food needs, along with year-end bonuses of close to 400,000 pesos. The top 14 retirees are paid between 238,000 to 362,000 pesos per month; in...

February 2017

Consumer Confusion: The Choice of Afore in Mexico

By Roberto Calderón-Colín, Enrique E. Dominguez & Moises J. Schwartz This paper was prepared for the World Bank 4th Annual Contractual Savings Conference (Washington DC, April 2008) co-organized by Gregorio Impavido. The article shows that account transfers among pension administrators in Mexico barely respond to price or return considerations and in general has not improved the consumer's pension balance. Instead of strengthening competition through lower fees and higher returns for the consumer, AFORE switching has so far undermined the system...