This paper discusses responses to current financial and economic crisis by regulators, supervisors and policy makers in the area of private pensions. These responses are examined in the light of international guidelines, best practices and recommendations to improve the design of private...

In light of the declining pension coverage of low-income workers, policy makers have discussed requiring all employers to offer individual retirement accounts, similar to defined contribution plans. How likely to participate are workers who currently do not have access to a pension plan? We...

This paper provides a review of the Swedish National Pension Funds based on international good practice and OECD guidelines. The paper focuses mainly on the general size and structure of the funds, the investment framework and the governance of the funds. The internal management of the funds...

This report reviews recent as well as planned changes to accounting and solvency regulations affecting insurers and pension funds and how they may impact long-term investing by these institutions. The review of existing evidence focuses mainly on the impact of risk-based solvency requirements,...

Having outlined the potential concerns relating to pension fund investment in hedge funds, the OECD carried out a survey to investigate what information pension fund regulators have on these investments and how they are being controlled. The survey confirms that pension fund regulators have...

Many countries around the world are partly prefunding their otherwise pay-as-you-go (PAYG) financed social security systems by establishing or further developing existing public pension reserve funds (PPRFs). Most OECD countries have put in place internal and external governance mechanisms and...

Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) are pools of assets owned and managed directly or indirectly by governments to achieve national objectives. These funds have raised concerns about: (i) financial stability, (ii) corporate governance and (iii) political interference and protectionism. At the same...

A recent trend in individual accounts schemes is the introduction and expansion of investment alternatives to plan members. The goal of investment choice is to enable plan members to select the optimal investment portfolio that matches their particular risk-return preference and ultimately,...

This report provides an analysis of aggregate investment performance by country on a risk adjusted basis using relatively standard investment performance measures. The report also describes privately managed pension funds around the world and the regulatory environment they face. It compares...