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March 2020

US. Pension Plan Funding Relief Needed ASAP

Last week, in a throwaway line in an article on multiemployer pensions, I considered it something of a given that, following a script similar to the 2008 crisis, Congress would provide “funding relief” to single-employer pension plan sponsors, allowing them to defer contributions to their pension plans which would otherwise be substantially elevated, and that it was multiemployer plans, with their pre-existing funding challenges, that faced greater difficulties. Unfortunately, that isn’t quite right. Single-employer plans are facing their own...

February 2020

Deal reached to cut bankrupt Puerto Rico’s debt by $24 bln

Puerto Rico would shed about $24 billion of debt and move closer to exiting bankruptcy under an agreement with bondholders announced on Sunday by the U.S. commonwealth's federally created financial oversight board. The deal would cut $35 billion of bonds and claims to about $11 billion as it increases the ranks of general obligation (GO) and Public Buildings Authority (PBA) bondholders that signed onto a plan to restructure core government debt and more than $50 billion in pension obligations...

The pension crisis of Latin America

The privatisation of the pension fund system in Latin America was hailed as one of the most important developments of the 1990s. A major challenge for developing countries is the lack of local savings. By definition, developing countries are in transition. They need a great deal of capital to modernise their infrastructure and improve their workforce through better education and health systems. This left most countries highly dependent on international capital flows. The problem is that international capital flows...

January 2020

Risk and Equity Release Mortgages in the UK

By: Tripti Sharma, Declan French, Donal G. McKillop Accessing elderly housing wealth through equity release mortgages (ERMs) continue to be the focus of policy debates about how to pay for social care and how to support retirement incomes in the UK. We demonstrate in this paper that the spatial concentration of this market in just a few regions is not due to demand but to the risks faced by suppliers. We show that by ignoring regional variations in No Negative...

December 2019

The Collapse of the Models. Re-shaping Social Protection in Europe and Latin America

The 2010-decade was a challenging period for the world. Latin America’s economy was doing relatively well at the beginning of the decade. However, the region’s economy is stagnated. Read also Colombia’s Pension Reform Hampered By Political Tension The European Union has been struggling too. Besides economic stagnation, right-wing populist candidates have been on the rise. The populists’ slogans on preserving national identity and tackling uncontrolled immigration have gained traction. Read also Greek government planning pension rises for 450,000 recipients Further, the...

UK. Bank of England Governor warns of climate change threat to pension funds

Bank of England governor Mark Carney has warned pension schemes are at risk due to climate change unless they cut their investments in fossil fuels. The outgoing BoE chief made the comments in a pre-recorded BBC Radio 4 interview broadcast today (30 December). Read also UK. 20 key changes to tax, pensions, benefits, rail fares and more coming in 2020 He warned unless firms woke up to the 'climate crisis' certain assets would become worthless. Mr Carney said:...

October 2019

Australia. Super industry reacts to Treasury’s Retirement Review

Super industry experts have reacted positively to the Treasury’s announcement of a retirement income review, the first review of the superannuation industry in 30 years, but say they want the Government to stick to its existing planned reforms. The Retirement Income Review was announced by the Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and will examine the interaction between the age pension, compulsory super and voluntary savings. The Productivity Commission had previously urged the Government to undertake the review before increasing the superannuation guarantee (SG)...

September 2019

Australia. A simpler system would be super

In the past year, reports by the Productivity Commission and the banking and financial services royal commission have prompted intense and commendable consideration about the direction of Australia’s retirement and savings policies. Superannuation should not be as cruelly complex as it is. While the system’s basic concept is elegant – providing workers with a compulsory employer-paid super contribution equivalent to at least 9.5 per cent of salary – the confounding rules, layers of costs, tax benefits and snags are...