Funding – Page 156
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News
Talking Point: Larger reserves needed?
The Dutch pensions regulator, De Nerderlandsche Bank, has suggested local pension funds may in future need to hold larger surplus reserves to ensure their liablities can be met. But is this an issue all pension funds should now be considering?
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News
Finnish self-employed are undersaving by a third
[16:30 CEST 24-04] FINLAND – A study suggests Finnish self-employed workers are not paying enough into their pension funds as the levels of self-employed persons pensions insurance (YEL) policies are about a third lower than actual annual income.
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Tesco fund gets £500m property as deficit exceeds £1bn
[16:15 CEST 24-04] UK – Tesco has revealed its pension deficit increased to £1.1bn (€1.2bn) by the end of February 2009, so the firm has pledged £500m of property to the scheme as contingent assets in a bid to improve its financial security.
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DNB says larger pension reserves needed
[16:00 CEST 24-04] NETHERLANDS – Dutch pension funds may need to set aside more of their returns and hold larger financial buffers to protect against potential future setbacks, officials at the pension regulator,De Nederlandsche Bank, have suggested.
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Interest rate hedge doubles PME’s loss
[15:00 CEST 24-04] NETHERLANDS – PME, the industry-wide pension fund for Dutch metalworkers electricians, saw its assets under management fall by 1.4% in the first three months of this year as an earlier move to protect the fund against falling interest rates instead damaged its returns.
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News
Irish gov't urged to extend Pension Board powers
[14:30 CEST 24-04] IRELAND – The Pensions Board should have similar powers to the UK Pensions Regulator allowing it to force solvent companies to address pension deficits before the firm is sold, the Services, Industrial, Professional and Technical Union (SIPTU) has claimed.
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News
Bulk of Swiss schemes now underfunded
[14:00 CEST 24-04] SWITZERLAND – The number of underfunded Swiss Pensionskassen has increased considerably in the first quarter with 74,3% now being below the full funding level.
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Positive Q1 boosts Varma value
[13:30 CESt 24-04] FINLAND – Varma Mutual Pension Insurance company has reported a positive first quarter performance of 0.3%, although its rival Eläke-Fennia produced a slightly poorer result of -0.2%.
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News
MEP reforms approved as EP votes against extra contributions
[16:30 CEST 23-04] EUROPE – Reforms to the voluntary pension fund for members of the European Parliament (MEPs) should allow the scheme to continue to pay benefits "for as long as necessary", and without the need for taxpayers to cover the actuarial deficit of €120m.
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News
Equity bounce limited PfZW and PMT falls
[16:15 CEST 23-04] NETHERLANDS – PfZW and PMT, the giant industry-wide pension funds for healthcare and metal industry workers, suffered losses of over 4% in the first quarter of this year, despite a slight recovery in equity markets last month.
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News
AP1 revises ownership policy over gov't guidelines
[15:45 CEST 23-04] SWEDEN - Första AP-fonden (AP1) is planning to abstain from voting on remuneration issues for senior executives of companies it is invested in, until a decision on a revised ownership policy has been made following new government guidelines.
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News
Ilmarinen sees positive results in Q1
[14:00 CEST 23-04] FINLAND – Ilmarinen Mutual Insurance Company has reported a positive first quarter return of 0.2%, as fixed income investments performed well.
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News
SHPS extends benefit options as deficit passes £600m
[13:00 CEST 23-04] UK – The Social Housing Pension Scheme (SHPS) is to offer a defined contribution (DC) option to employers for the first time after the latest valuation revealed its deficit had increased to £633m (€715m) at the end of September 2008, from £209m the previous year.
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News
Future provision threatened by early pension access - OECD
[12:00 CEST 23-04] GLOBAL – The OECD has warned future pension provision could be undermined by giving early access to pension funds to aid people in “severe economic difficulties” alongside access to national pension reserves.
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News
EC to focus on member protection at insolvency
[17:00 CEST 22-04] EUROPE – The European Commission (EC) is seeking a contractor to help it further investigate measures for protecting supplementary pension benefits in the event of employer insolvency.
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News
Germans prepare for lower pension
[16:45 CEST 22-04] GERMANY – The number of Germans who think they will have to cut expenses at retirement is on the rise, while fewer people are willing to save privately for their pension, research has suggested.
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News
Hoogovens' recovery enacted despite hedge
[16:30 CEST 22-04] NETHERLANDS - Falling interest rates as well as an negative returns on equities caused the cover ratio of Stichting Pensioenfonds Hoogovens to fall from 135.8% in 2007 to 105.5% a year later, even though the scheme had applied a sizeable interest rate hedge.
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News
Railways scheme's buffers hit by losses
[16:10 CEST 22-04] NETHERLANDS - SPF, the large pension fund for the railways sector, lost 19.2% on investments last year, while its assets dropped from €12bn to €9.5bn and the cover fell to 121%.
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News
UK Budget cuts higher rate tax relief (updated)
[14:25 CEST 22-04] UK – Alistair Darling, chancellor of the Exchequer, has confirmed tax relief on pension contributions for high earners will be reduced from 40% to 20% from April 2011.
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News
BPF Bouw is confident of recovery
[14:00 CEST 22-04] NETHERLANDS - BPF Bouw, the €24.2bn scheme for the building industry, expects to eliminate its funding shortfall within three years by raising contributions and halting indexation.
