June 2023

Robust Retirement Tiers Can Help Keep Participants In-Plan

Workplace retirement plans may need to change their name—these days, more plan sponsors are looking for ways to serve their former employees even after they’ve quit working. Research released by Cerulli Associates last month showed that more than half of plan sponsors (54%) would prefer to keep their retired participants’ assets in their plan, rather than seeing them rolled into an individual retirement account or other plan. That’s more than double the 26% who said the same in 2019. But plan...

Canadian pension fund CDPQ puts brakes on China investment – FT

Canada's second-largest pension fund Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) has stopped making private deals in China and will close its Shanghai office later this year, the Financial Times reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. CDPQ is currently leading its regional investment efforts from Singapore, the report said, adding that it still has business interests in China. "We paused private investments for some time already — and have focused on liquid markets, which is the majority...

May 2023

UK. Derisking well funded DB schemes may be an opportunity missed

Funding is reaching record levels and DB schemes are now in a position of strength. Current regulations compel schemes to target ultra low investment returns, but taking risk and therefore return out of DB pension investments may be going too far, representing a ‘missed opportunity’ to better invest £1.5 trillion of UK DB pension scheme assets. Steve Hodder, partner at LCP, said: “For 20-plus years, regulatory focus has been on ‘slowing down’ DB schemes through reducing investment risk. This was...

UK. Create pension superfunds to save the economy, says Tony Blair Institute

Thousands of UK retirement schemes should be merged into just half a dozen £400bn superfunds to turbocharge investment in businesses and infrastructure, Sir Tony Blair’s think tank has said. In a paper today, the Tony Blair Institute backs proposals circulating in Whitehall to turn the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) – a lifeboat scheme for the pension funds of companies which go bust – into the first of a new generation of “global scale” schemes that are better-equipped to invest in...

Save to Advance: Analysis and Recommendations on the Pension Reform in Colombia

By Manuela Restrepo, Camilo José Ríos, Andrés Mauricio Velasco & Andrés Zambrano  In March of 2023, the Government filed a Bill that seeks to modify the Colombian pension system. The Bill contemplates a four-pillar scheme: a social transfer pillar named Solidario, a semi- contributory pillar, a contributory pillar, and a voluntary savings pillar. This paper presents a summary of the Bill filled in Congress, followed by an analysis of its implications for fiscal sustainability and macroeconomic stability. As a result, we recommend that the...

Analysis: Global pension funds eye currencies for additional returns

Expectations for lower returns in stocks and bonds are sending some pension funds into currency markets to diversify their portfolios and bolster performance. While both equities and fixed income have partially rebounded from last year's steep declines, some portfolio managers worry the scope for upside in either asset class may be limited, as markets face a tangle of issues including a standoff over raising the U.S. debt ceiling and a potential recession brought on by the Federal Reserve's aggressive monetary...

UK. Savers miss out on £70,000 at poorly performing pension funds

Thousands of poorly-performing pension funds have been placed on notice by regulators as analysis reveals that savers are missing out on nearly £70,000 in lost investment returns. Nausicaa Delfas, the new boss of The Pensions Regulator (TPR), vowed on Tuesday to go after the trustees of struggling funds that are letting down their members. The Telegraph can separately disclose that average savers are missing out on tens of thousands of pounds in lost investment returns at conservative British pension funds, after...

Asset owners, managers sign biodiversity pledge

Stichting Pensioenfonds ABP, Heerlen, Netherlands, joined 14 asset owners and managers signing the Finance for Biodiversity Pledge Monday to commemorate World Biodiversity Day. The pledge calls for signatories to commit to map their biodiversity impact, set goals and targets, and disclose the results before 2025, along with collaboration and engaging with companies to halt and reverse nature loss. The €480 billion ($528.9 billion) pension fund is now one of 140 signatories representing a collective €19.7 trillion in assets from 23 countries. Other...

US. Major pension funds are steering big dollars to infrastructure

Major U.S. pension funds are increasingly turning to infrastructure for its solid risk-adjusted return profile and strong performance resilience. Since 2011, Pensions & Investments has tracked more than 950 infrastructures hires totaling more than $134 billion committed, paced by 148 hires and $17.7 billion committed in 2021. Maine Public Employees Retirement System, Augusta, is also drawn to infrastructure due to its ability provide diversification from the plan's public and private equity and fixed-income assets, said William Proom, managing director of investments...

Nigeria. PenCom registers 95,000 informal sector operators on CPS

The National Pension Commission (PenCom) said it has registered 95,045 participants on the Micro Pension Plan (MPP) of the contributory pension scheme (CPS) and recorded a total contribution of over N435.6 million as of last month. Head of the Micro Pensions Department, National Pension Commission (PenCom), Dauda Ahmed, said this in Lagos, at a workshop organised for Labour Writers’ Association of Nigeria (LAWAN). Ahmed, who spoke on ‘Facilitating Financial Inclusion in the Informal Sector through the MPP’, said the total withdrawals...