An adequate and sustainable retirement income for EU citizens now and in the future is a priority for the European Union. Achieving these objectives in an ageing Europe is a major challenge. Most Member States have sought to prepare for this through pension reforms. The recent financial and economic crisis has aggravated and  amplified the impact of the severe trend in demographic ageing. Setbacks in economic growth, public budgets, financial stability and employment have made it more urgent to adjust retirement practices and the way people build up entitlements to pensions. The crisis has revealed that more must be done to improve the efficiency and safety of pension schemes1 which not only provide a means for a decent life in old age but also represent the reward for a lifetime of work.

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Euroepan Commission, 2010

This document describes EU legislation covering the pension pillars (section 1) and related EU legislation and initiatives (section 2). A  mapping of the EU legislation applicable to pension schemes/institutions in the different EU Member States is provided in section 3. This mapping focuses in particular on prudential regulation and was carried out by the Committee of European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Supervisors (CEIOPS).

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European Commission, 2010

This paper examines the policy issues, constraints and options facing policymakers an promoting the development of sound markets for retirement products.

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The World Bank, 2010

This paper provides a comparative summary of the payout phase of pension systems in five countries - Australia, Chile, Denmark, Sweden and Swizerland.

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The World Bank, 2010

Over the past decade or so, most Central and Eastern European countries have reformed their pension systems, sighnificantly downsizing their public pillars and creating private pillars based on capitalization accounts.

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The World Bank, 2010

Individually Capitalized Pension Systems have not yet reached full maturity. In these systems, the payout phase will only increase its importance.

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BBVA, 2010

This document shows the main legal pension system changes occured during September - December 2009 as well as the tendencies observed in the debate about the pension regulatory changes faced by countries.

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FIAP, 2010

This research study has various objectives. First, to highlight the importance of investment in infrastructure on economic growth. Second, to underscore the need for a competitive and transparent process to implement these investments, which must be aimed at efficiency and obtaining a proper balance between private and social benefits. Third, to identify the potential of pension funds as a flow of resources that can be channeled toward the development of infrastructure. And finally, to quantify the impact that the destination of these funds could have on the long-term growth projections of a country. To this end, we conducted an experiment to calculate per capita GDP growth in Latin America if the share of pension fund portfolios in assets related with direct infrastructure investment was increased. For this, we compared an inertial scenario (taking into account the current diversification of portfolios), versus one in which these were increased.

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BBVA, 2010

The purpose of this study is to create a detailed account of what Latin American pension funds have meant to the financing of infrastructures, with the purpose of serving as a basis for reflection regarding potential improvements to optimize the portfolios of pension funds and accomplish a greater contribution of retirement savings to the development of countries. The involvement of pension funds in infrastructure is a recommended strategy for managed portfolios based on the criteria establishing that they should be an attractive investment for future pensions, and thus must reach an adequate balance between return and risk. Likewise, given the importance of infrastructure in development, we see that a more significant involvement of pension funds also constitutes a desirable goal because it implies not only greater private benefits for owners of retirement savings (affiliates), but also for society as a whole. In order to perform a complete analysis, we study the evolution and traditional forms of participation in the financing of infrastructure, identifying strengths as well as weaknesses to be corrected. Existing processes are also described, which have assisted to a greater or lesser extent in the involvement of the private sector through concession laws in these countries. Finally, we discuss the different tools that the current systems depend on which allow the involvement of pension funds, as well as how these processes have been carried out up to this moment and the opportunities foreseen.

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BBVA, 2010

The purpose of this document is to describe the regulations governing the multifunds systems (or multiple portfolios) in the different countries that have adopted pension programs based on individual funding. In Latin America, multifund systems exist in Chile (2002), Mexico (2005) and Peru (2005). Colombia will implement a multifund system in 2011. Among the Eastern European countries, Estonia implemented this system in 2002, Latvia in 2003 and Slovakia in 2005. Hungary started operating this type of system voluntarily as of 2007, but it
became mandatory in 2009. Finally, Lithuania implemented a multifund system in 2004.

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FIAP, 2010