August 2020

UK pensioners lose £30m to scammers

Pension savers claim over £30m ($39.4m) has been lost to scams over the past three years, according to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and The Pensions Regulator. Pension pots of all sizes have been victims of scams, with reported losses ranging from under £1,000 to as much as £500,000. A total of £30,857,329 has been reportedly lost to pension scammers since 2017, according to complaints filed with Action Fraud. However, the true number of scams is likely to be...

June 2020

COVID-19: The Regulatory and Supervisory Implications for the Banking Sector : A Joint IMF-World Bank Staff Position Note

By: International Monetary Fund. Monetary and Capital Markets Department ; World Bank. This joint IMF-World Bank note provides a set of high-level recommendations that can guide national regulatory and supervisory responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and offers an overview of measures taken across jurisdictions to date. Read the complete book here

UK. Regulator repeats anti-scam warning as £5m lost to fraud

The Pensions Regulator has repeated its warning about scams after a report showed more than £5m has been lost to fraud since February. According to research carried out by Action Fraud the number of fraud cases total more than 2,100 in the past five months, with losses to fraudulent activity amounting to £5,142,265. Pension scams were amongst the most common type of fraud with fraudsters tricking victims into transferring their pension pots to criminals or releasing funds. Commenting on...

May 2020

US. Department Of Labor Simplifies Electronic Disclosure Requirements For Retirement Plans

For years, employers have struggled to satisfy Department of Labor (DOL) requirements for providing legally required notices and documents to retirement plan participants through electronic means. The DOL itself has long acknowledged that its electronic disclosure regulations were outdated and unnecessarily burdensome for employers. On May 27, the DOL published new regulations that simplify the process for providing legally required notices and documents to retirement plan participants. At a high level, these new regulations provide a safe harbor...

UK. True scale of pension scams unknown, think tank warns

The "true scale" of pension scams remains unknown as only a minority are reported and data is not collected in comparable ways across the industry, the Pensions Policy Institute has warned. A policy paper from the PPI, published yesterday (May 19), found data available about the number of scams taking place across the industry, as well as the amount lost in each scam, did not offer a comprehensive view of the true scale of the issue. It warned this...

April 2020

Athene pays $45 mln fine in first settlement of NY pension transfer probe

Athene Holding Ltd ATH.N agreed on Monday to pay a $45 million civil fine to settle charges it conducted insurance business in New York without a license, the first settlement in a probe into an industry where life insurers take over corporate pension plans. Linda Lacewell, superintendent of New York's Department of Financial Services, said Athene's unlicensed Athene Annuity & Life unit conducted 14 large pension risk transfer transactions covering tens of thousands of policy holders, and engaged in...

March 2020

PEPPs unlikely to survive after closer look by EU regulators

Money managers and consultants say that voluntary pan-European personal pension products could be dead on arrival with the watchdog European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority taking a tougher approach to its supervision. Read also ​Swedish Pensions Agency sees need for new pension savings scheme The European Commission launched PEPPs in 2019 to simplify retirement saving for self-employed and mobile workers seeking employment across the European Union. Through a portable cross-border plan design for individuals, a PEPP was developed to help...

January 2020

Nigerian Governors should publish payment details of their pensions since 1999, SERAP ask court

Nigeria’s Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has filed a lawsuit asking the Federal High Court, Abuja to order the 36 state governors in Nigeria to “publish details and breakdown of payment of pensions to each of the former governors and other ex-officials, and the names and number of ex-governors and other officials receiving pensions under their respective State pension laws between 1999 and 2019.” Read Also Nigeria’s pension industry squeezed as risk outlook for banks worsens In the suit filed...

December 2019

MySuper Product Heatmap

By APRA The MySuper Product Heatmap provides assessments of the performance of every MySuper superannuation product. The heatmap provides stakeholders with transparency on the outcomes being delivered by all trustees providing MySuper products. It is designed to lift industry practices and enhance member outcomes by publicly identifying which MySuper products are underperforming and the areas they need to improve. It uses a graduating colour scheme to provide credible, clear and comparable insights into MySuper products across three areas: investment performance, fees...

November 2019

Chile. Super de Pensiones intensifica monitoreo sobre las AFP ante impacto en rentabilidad por crisis social

La Superintendencia de Pensiones (SP) informó este miércoles que ha intensificado las actividades de monitoreo habituales que realiza sobre la gestión de las administradoras de fondos de pensiones, dada la actual coyuntura y sus efectos sobre el comportamiento del mercado financiero local. Esto ha generado un aumento en la volatilidad de los precios de los instrumentos financieros y del tipo de cambio, lo que ha impactado la rentabilidad de corto plazo de los fondos de pensiones, precisó el organismo....