February 2022

Pension Markets in Focus 2021

Pension Markets in Focus 2021

By OECD Pension Markets in Focus provides detailed and comparable statistics on retirement savings around the world. This annual statistical report contributes to the effort of making data on retirement savings available, as the OECD Core Principles of Private Pension Regulation advocates for, to enable regulators and stakeholders to evaluate the design and operation of the pension system relative to its goals. These statistics can support policy discussions through international comparisons and peer learning, and are the basis of policy...

Do pensions have real teeth? Evidence from the state government borrowing costs

By Sumit Agarwal, Chunlin Liu, Qiyuan Peng, Qun Wu & Ting Zhang Yes, they do. State governments with risky defined benefit pension plans have higher borrowing costs, as measured by larger bond offering yield spreads. To control for the potential endogenous issue, we utilize the instruments of actuarial firms’ reputation, and direct flight between the state capital and actuarial firm headquarter. We further identify the relation between pension plan investment risks and borrowing costs using two quasi-experimental shocks: the introduction...

Iranian Teachers Demand Fair Pay, Pension Adjustment

Hundreds of teachers are protesting across Iran to demand a fair pay, adjustment of pensions, and the release of their detained colleagues. The protests in dozens of cities follow two days of sit-ins in schools where teachers had reportedly gone on strike. On January 31, teachers staged a protest outside the parliament building in Tehran and in front of Education Ministry offices in other cities, including Shiraz, Isfahan, and Ahvaz, to present their demands. Last month, Iran's parliament passed legislation to raise...

U.S. public pension funds may turn to more ‘aggressive’ investment, report says

U.S. public pension funds will likely have to switch to more aggressive investment strategies in the coming years to fill funding gaps despite assets held by sovereign investors having grown to record levels amid the 2021 equity market boom, a new report said. On average, the difference between assets and liabilities at U.S. public pension funds, known as the "funded ratio," remains "unsatisfactory" at less than 75%, sovereign investor specialist Global SWF said in a report. To boost returns, many will...

January 2022

Spain to raise regular public pensions by 2.5% this year

Spain will raise most public pensions by 2.5% in 2022, boosting the average pensioner's income by around 250 euros ($281.78) a year Social Security Minister Jose Luis Escriva said on Tuesday after a cabinet meeting where the increase was approved. The lowest public pensions will increase by 3%, he added, while inflation reached 6.5% in 2021. Overall, the pension increase will cost some 6.5 billion euros. ($1 = 0.8872 euros) Read more @ZAWYA The newspaper El Economista explains today that on the same...

UK university pension scheme to add climate focus to 5 billion stg of AUM

Britain's Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) will add a climate focus to 5 billion pounds ($6.77 billion) of its assets under management to meet climate targets, it said on Monday. The climate focus will initially reduce emissions compared to the broad equity market by at least 30%, and further cut its carbon intensity by 7% each following year, USS said in a statement. USS, which has 82 billion pounds in total assets under management and is one of Britain's biggest pension schemes,...

UK. More universities join USS strike

The University and College Union has secured the support of yet more institutions in its campaign for strike action over member benefit cuts in the Universities Superannuation Scheme. The UCU balloted its members in November over strike action in response to proposals agreed between the USS trustee and Universities UK, the group representing 340 USS employers, over the scheme’s controversial 2020 valuation. The union has argued that the agreement, which includes covenant support measures that UUK says are necessary to stave...

Pensions will continue to grow in Ukraine in 2022 - Shmyhal

Pensions will continue to grow in Ukraine in 2022 – Shmyhal

Pension payments will continue to grow in Ukraine in 2022, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal has said. He said this at a government meeting on Wednesday, January 12, according to an Ukrinform correspondent. "An increase [in pensions] is expected this year. There are quite a few stages. In particular, the indexation of pensions is planned from March, including for working pensioners, and the program of additional payments will be extended to persons over 70 years of age. Recalculations will be made for...

The Future of Multi-Pillar Pensions

By Lans Bovenberg, Casper van Ewijk & Ed Westerhout Pension systems are under serious pressure worldwide. This pressure stems not only from the well-known trend of population aging, but also from those of increasing heterogeneity of the population and increasing labour mobility. The current economic crisis has aggravated these problems, thereby exposing the vulnerability of many pension schemes to macroeconomic shocks. This book reconsiders the multi-pillar pension scheme against the background of these pressures. It adopts an integral perspective and...

US. NCPERS Proposes a New Tool to Make Public Pension Plans Fiscally Sustainable

Public pensions can be made and kept sustainable for the long haul by incorporating a new tool— sustainability valuation—into funding policies and practices, according to a new study by the National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems. Pension systems can use sustainability valuation to monitor their fiscal status on a continuing basis, gaining insights that would enable them to identify fiscal adjustments needed to stabilize pensions long-term, the study found. The study by Michael Kahn, NCPERS director of research, delineates...