South Korean local government cancels international event with 30,000 participants from 78 countries, causing international damage.

On 29 October, an administrative decision by a South Korean government agency triggered international controversy, raising concerns over religious freedom and resulting in considerable financial loss.

The “Religious Leaders Forum and Graduation Ceremony,” a joint initiative by two prominent religious organisations, was scheduled to take place in Paju, South Korea. The event was anticipated to attract over 30,000 participants from 57 countries, including 1,000 religious leaders representing Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, and Hinduism.

However, the Gyeonggi Tourism Organisation, a public entity under Gyeonggi Province, abruptly cancelled the venue rental without prior notice. This last-minute decision has led to significant financial damage for the international event. Organisers of the event stated that the cancellation constitutes an unconstitutional act of discrimination against a particular religion, violating religious freedom, human rights, and due process of law.

The hosting organisations, the Association for Buddhist National Unification of Korea and the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, reported that they had received official confirmation on 23 and 28 October that there was no plan to cancel. They also claimed that the unilateral cancellation was an unreasonable administrative action targeting a specific religious group. They further emphasised that other events scheduled for the same day were unaffected, suggesting that the cancellation was “an administrative decision influenced by opposition from a specific religious group,” which “violates the principle of separation of church and state guaranteed by the Constitution.”

The Gyeonggi Tourism Organisation cited security concerns related to recent North Korean actions and the planned activities of a North Korean defector group as reasons for the cancellation. However, it was noted that other events, such as civilian bike rides and foreign tourist visits to the DMZ, were allowed within the same designated area.

The incident has reignited international debate about religious freedom and tolerance in South Korea. The U.S. State Department’s International Religious Freedom Report has previously raised concerns such as the prosecution of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus and the government’s refusal to approve the construction of a mosque.

The Association for Buddhist National Unification of Korea and the Shincheonji Church of Jesus are calling on the South Korean government to respect religious freedom, uphold human rights, and reverse this unjust decision. They urge international organisations to monitor the situation and take appropriate action to protect religious freedom.

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Yesterday, we wrote about how Donald Trump’s resounding election victory sparked a rally in Russia’s Moex index, Austria’s heavily Russia-exposed Raiffeisen Bank International and various other Russia-linked assets.  

We missed a biggie — on Monday, JPMorgan’s Emerging Europe, Middle East and Africa Securities (JEMA) had jumped 18.3 per cent, its biggest daily rise in over two years.

Until 2022, the London-listed investment fund went by a slightly snappier name: JPMorgan Russian Securities.

JEMA describes itself in marketing materials as a high-quality, dividend-focused equity fund. Launched in 1994, it was one of the first ever to invest in Russia’s then-newly-open market, and has been run by JPM’s Oleg Biryulyov ever since. 

Obviously everything changed for the fund after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. And, perhaps, it’s important to take a longer view:

The eventual closure of the Russian market to Western investors meant the valuation of the 26 stocks JEMA held in Russia were marked down to nominal levels, with sanctions having trashed their valuations. One of JEMA’s Ukrainian directors stepped down shortly after the outbreak of war. 

JEMA remains a good way to play the prospect of Russia getting de-sanctioned, however.

Months after the invasion, the fund’s board swapped its original benchmark (Russia’s RTS Index) for the S&P EMEA BMI (ticker: SPEMAUT), which covers “stocks from developed and emerging markets in Europe, the Middle East and Africa”. On Monday, that index barely budged.

JEMA’s Russian securities now comprise roughly eight per cent of the net asset value of its portfolio. Lukoil and Gazprom remain two of JEMA’s top-five overweights. 

In the six months to last April, JEMA’s net asset value rose 6.9 per cent, marginally underperforming its new reference index. Chair Eric Sanderson blamed this on “high ongoing charges and its holding of Russian assets, which do not form part of the reference index”.

Post-tax revenue over the same period fell to £41,000. In the six months to April 2021, revenue was £4.3mn. At pixel time, the fund’s market cap stood just under $60mn.

“Separate and distinct” from JEMA’s market cap, as Grant’s Interest Rate Observer noted in August, “is £25.2mn in accumulated Russian dividends (with another £7.9mn expected), undistributed since the war began” and held in a custody ‘S’ account in Moscow.

Per Grant’s:

Whether the JEMA shareholders or Vladimir Putin will wind up pocketing the money is a good question. Decree No. 442, signed by the president of Russia on May 23, authorizes retaliatory compensation for Western seizures of Russian assets. Surely, if push came to shove, Putin would not overlook the JEMA dividend pile.

[ . . . ]

Accounting for the aforementioned writedown of Russian assets, JEMA’s NAV per share stands at £0.50. However, if one were to replace the marked-down value with current market value, the picture would instantly brighten — it could, in fact, dazzle. NAV per share would soar by 813% to £4.54.

In April, to complicate matters further, VTB Bank, one of Russia’s largest state lenders — and one of JEMA’s holdings — filed a lawsuit in Russia against nine JPMorgan legal entities, seeking to recover $493.5mn held with the US bank in New York. JPMorgan has challenged VTB’s claims.

On October 18, per a JEMA filing to the LSE, the Russian court granted VTB’s claim for $439mn in full against eight (including JEMA) of the nine JPMorgan entities named as defendants in the original claim.

The JPMorgan defendants have 30 days from the date of publication of the ruling to appeal. Under current Russian law, JEMA’s ‘S’ account assets cannot be used to satisfy the judgment. 

Has Trump’s election victory shifted the dial on any of this? Judging by JEMA’s share price jump on Monday, some investors seem to think the answer may be “yes”.

The venerable small self-administered scheme (SSAS) has been with us as a pensions option for well over 50 years now.

It was the true progenitor of self-investment in the pensions industry, leading the way to more opportunities for business people to save for later life.

Over the years, however, SSAS has become somewhat forgotten, particularly once Sipps exploded onto the scene in 1987. Sipps seized the centre stage of self-investment, though the Sipps of today look very different to those early schemes.

Decades of product development have brought the rise of the investment platform, which, although versatile and holding a vice-like grip on the majority of the Sipp market, doesn’t really encapsulate the true spirit of self-investment.

Many planners, perhaps even most, will have never dealt with a Ssas, let alone recommended its use

The challenge is that, alongside this relentless development of Sipps, the client and adviser demographics have also greatly changed. The old guard of pure advisers is slowly ebbing away and a new generation of planners are taking their place.

Many planners, perhaps even most, will have never dealt with a Ssas, let alone recommended its use.

Is SSAS even relevant in today’s world of financial advice?

Yes, I say, absolutely – perhaps now more than ever.

The entrepreneurial self-investment capability still has a solid place within the advice sector, particularly to meet the practical needs of small and medium-sized enterprises – in other words, business-owning clients, who will be on virtually every planner’s books.

Loanbacks – where the scheme lends up to 50% of the scheme value to the sponsoring employer – are highly attractive to business owners

One of the key roles SSAS can play is the opportunity to associate the client’s business as a sponsoring employer. This unlocks that wonderful SSAS specific feature: the loanback.

Loanbacks – where the scheme lends up to 50% of the scheme value to the sponsoring employer – are highly attractive to business owners. This gives access to low-cost funding that can generate business expansion.

There are, of course, rules, or tests, to ensure these loans are compliant with HM Revenue & Customs stipulations, though these are considerably less onerous than the typical lending process deployed by most institutional lenders.

When Sipps began to rule the roost of self-investment, up until around 2012 with RDR, and most certainly from 2016 onwards with the introduction of provider capital adequacy rules, they were the go-to option for anyone looking at non-retail investment solutions. One of the most popular avenues of that time was investment in private company shares.

SSAS will be around for a long time yet. However, I acknowledge it isn’t as popular as the Sipp and has a much smaller target market

These non-standard investment solutions no longer exist in the Sipp world – we could even regard them as extinct.

With SSAS, however, many non-retail asset classes can still be chosen. Furthermore, even when rare Sipp-based private share investment proposals are available, SSAS and loanback can often combine to offer a robust alternative solution.

All sounds great, right? So, why my concern about SSAS extinction?

I believe SSAS will probably be around for a long time yet. However, I acknowledge it simply isn’t as popular as the Sipp and has a much smaller target market. And so, as those advisers familiar with SSAS head into retirement, it’s vital the next generation understand and embrace the product and its many unique capabilities.

For me, it’s a perception thing – SSAS is indeed a ‘legacy’ product. Many of the new generation of advisers weren’t alive when it came into being. Amazingly, many weren’t even around for the advent of Sipps.

Let’s re-think, embrace and celebrate SSAS and the long future it clearly has ahead of it

Perhaps I am being unfair here, though it does feel at times like some people are conflating the legacy feel and age of SSAS with it being obsolete. Equally likely, it’s the perceived complexity of SSAS that’s an issue, particularly in contrast to the hyper-evolved offshoot of those first Sipps: the platform.

Ultimately, clients using SSAS are taking on a more involved role as trustees, with key decision-making responsibilities. Perhaps this alone creates a fear of things going awry.

Nevertheless, when we truly understand its capabilities, it’s hard to draw any conclusion other than, actually, SSAS is absolutely suitable for a segment of today’s clients. And with client outcomes at the heart of the decision-making process, the right solution should always trump other factors, like inherent bias.

The key for the latest generation of advisers and planners is to ensure they obtain the right support structure from the provider they use for SSAS. This includes receiving technical guidance that removes complexity, along with gaining added confidence when recommending SSAS where suitable for client needs.

So let’s re-think, embrace and celebrate SSAS and the long future it clearly has ahead of it.

Matt Storey is head of business development at @sipp

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Goldman Sachs has appointed 95 new partners in its biennial process to refill the Wall Street bank’s senior ranks, according to people familiar with the matter, the bank’s biggest class of partners since 2010.

While Goldman stopped being a formal partnership when it went public in 1999, the investment bank still confers the partner title on a select group of employees to convey seniority and importance. It remains one of the most sought-after titles on Wall Street. 

The appointments come against a backdrop of renewed optimism on Wall Street for mergers and acquisitions and regulation under a second Trump administration. Shares in Goldman rose 13 per cent on Wednesday following the election results.

The bank is set to make an official announcement on the new partner class later on Thursday. Goldman declined to comment on the promotions.

The 95 new partners is up from 80 the last time the bank conducted its round of promotions in 2022. At the time, that was the largest class since David Solomon took over as chief executive in 2018.

Solomon has talked about reducing the number of new partners to preserve the group’s “aspirational nature”, as well as promoting a more diverse slate of candidates. 

Goldman has about 400 partners against a total workforce of just over 46,000, meaning the partners represent fewer than 1 per cent of the bank’s employees. 

The fact that partners are selected only once every two years, when most companies promote new senior employees annually, makes it all the more precious for those selected and even more painful for candidates who miss out.

Being a partner at Goldman typically guarantees a salary of at least $1mn, plus a bonus, access to an annual private gathering with splashy speakers which have included former presidents and prime ministers, and funds to donate to charity through the bank’s philanthropic arm.

New partners are selected in what is known inside Goldman as “cross ruffing” — a nod to a play in the card game bridge — where current partners are tasked with vetting candidates through interviews with their senior colleagues. 

“If there’s any negative feedback you don’t make it,” said one former Goldman partner. “It’s like a beauty pageant. And if there are any blemishes it’s bad.” 

Before the most recent partner class, only 19 per cent of Goldman’s partners were women.

Many former Goldman partners have gone on to public service, including Securities and Exchange Commission chair Gary Gensler, Steven Mnuchin, US Treasury secretary in the first Trump administration, and Malcolm Turnbull, Australia’s former prime minister.

THOUSANDS of retirees can get a free TV licence, saving them up to £169.50 per year.

Anyone who wants live television including Sky, ITV, and BBC must obtain one.

1

The Government is responsible for setting the level of the licence fee.

Last December it was announced that the government would raise the licence fee by 6.7%, in line with inflation, taking effect from April 2024.

This has brought the cost of a colour licence fee to £169.50 per year and a black and white licence fee to £57 per year.

It is illegal to watch live TV without a licence, and you could be fined up to £1,000 if you’re caught.

But if you are claiming the state pension and are aged 75 or over, you could get the licence for free.

That is because anyone in this age bracket can use the service for free if they are claiming pension credit.

If you’re over 75 and not in receipt of pension credit you have to pay for a TV licence, which could be up to £169.50 a year.

You can also get a free licence if your partner claims pension credit but you do not.

To apply for a free TV licence you can visit the following website, https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/cs/pay-for-your-tv-licence/index.app.

Alternatively, you can call the following number and apply over the phone 0300 790 6071.

But remember, you must be claiming pension credit to get the freebie.

If you are confused about whether or not you claim the payment check one of your bank statements.

You should see an entry with your National Insurance Number followed by the letters “PC”.

What is pension credit?

Pension Credit gives you extra money if you claim the State Pension and are on a low income.

If you live with a partner and you are both of State Pension age, your weekly income must fall below around £350.

However, if your income is slightly higher, you might still be eligible for Pension Credit if you have a disability, you care for someone, you have savings or you have housing costs.

You could get an extra £81.50 a week if you have a disability or claim any of the following:

• Attendance allowance
• The middle or highest rate from the care component of disability living allowance (DLA)
• The daily living component of personal independence payment (PIP)
• Armed forces independence payment
• The daily living component of adult disability payment (ADP) at the standard or enhanced rate.

You could get the “savings credit” part of pension credit if both of the following apply:

• You reached State Pension age before April 6, 2016
• You saved some money for retirement, for example, a personal or workplace pension

This part of Pension Credit is worth £17.01 for single people or £19.04 for couples.

Pension Credit opens the door to other support, including housing benefits, cost of living payments, council tax reductions and the Winter Fuel Payment.

How do you apply?

You can start your application for Pension Credit up to four months before you reach State Pension age.

To apply you’ll need to provide your National Insurance number, information about any income, savings and investments you have, and your bank account details.

If you live with a partner you’ll also need to provide their details.

You can apply online here or by calling 0800 99 1234.

Other ways to get a discounted TV licence

You could be eligible for a discounted TV licence if you live in residential care or sheltered accommodation, or if you’re registered blind.

If you live in sheltered accommodation or residential care and are over 60 or disabled you can get a licence for just £7.50.

If you’re registered blind, or live with someone who is, you’re in line for a 50% discount.

The licence must be in the name of the person registered blind, but if your existing licence is not in their name, you can apply to transfer it.

You can apply for the discount on the TV Licensing website.

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The MP Mike Amesbury has been charged with assault after CCTV footage showed a late-night altercation on a street in north-west England.

Police said on Thursday that the 55-year-old, who was suspended from the Labour party after the incident in Frodsham, Cheshire, last month, had been summoned to court.

Video footage appeared to show the MP for Runcorn and Helsby punching a man to the ground.

Prosecutors said they had brought a charge of common assault against the politician following a review of evidence presented by police.

Amesbury confirmed in a statement that he had been told to appear in court. He said the incident was “deeply regrettable” and added: “I am continuing to co-operate with police and given this is an ongoing case I cannot comment further.”

Amesbury was first elected to parliament in 2017 and held his constituency with a majority of 14,696 at the general election in July. He was previously a shadow minister.

He now sits as an independent MP after Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer approved the suspension of the party whip from him.

Cheshire Police said an alleged attack on a 45-year-old man had been reported to officers at 2.48am on October 26.

The force said Amesbury would appear before magistrates to face a charge of section 39 assault. The venue and date of his first appearance have yet to be confirmed.

Rosemary Ainslie, head of the Crown Prosecution Service’s special crime division, warned the public to avoid “reporting, commentary or sharing of information online which could in any way prejudice these proceedings”.

She said in a statement that the criminal proceedings were “active” and that Amesbury “has the right to a fair trial”.