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This paper reviews the recent development of the funded pension system in the Russian Federation and considers it role in the context of the overall retirement income system. By describing current OECD practices and policy recommendations and comparing them with the current Russian pension system, the report aims to facilitate ongoing discussions between the OECD and the Russian Federation regarding the latter’s pension system. The report is based to a large extent on existing OECD published material, in particular the latest edition of OECD Pensions at a Glance (2011) and the OECD Pensions Outlook 2012. It also draws on the OECD review of labour and social policy published in December 2011.

Finance and Investment --- Social Issues/Migration/Health --- Russian Federation

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This paper assesses current regulatory and accounting developments in the OECD area against their purported goals. It specifically considers the different approaches to valuing pension liabilities and questions the possibility of convergence between funding and business accountants' valuation standards for pension liabilities. It concludes that the trend towards market-based valuation methods in business accounting is not entirely consistent with the parallel exercise undertaken by many pension regulators. Since valuation methods for funding purposes are likely to continue moving towards a market-based model, policymakers should be all the more cautious in setting funding regulations so as to provide sufficient flexibility to pension funds in covering funding deficits while providing incentives to establish funding buffers in good economic times. We also argue that accounting rules and regulatory changes are driving plan design in some OECD countries such as Japan, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom and can lead to procyclical investment behaviour by pension funds.

Finance and Investment

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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 investment controls to ensure the sound management of these funds and better isolate them from undue political influence. These structures and mechanisms are in line with OECD standards of good pension fund governance and investment management. In particular, the requirements of accountability, suitability and transparency are broadly met by these reserve funds. However, some specific details of the funds’ governance and investment management could be improved in a few countries, such as enhancing the expertise in the funds’ governing boards and constraining discretionary interventions by government. Such reforms will ultimately raise the long-term investment performance of the funds and the solvency of social security systems.

Finance and Investment

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This report reviews the existing evidence on pension fund investment in infrastructure in “new” markets, covering a number of non-OECD countries, such as Brazil, China, India, Indonesia and South Africa, as well as some OECD countries like Chile and Mexico. In the African, Asian, and Latin American countries surveyed, domestic pension funds invest more than USD 15 bn in infrastructure projects, around 1.3% of the total assets managed (USD 1.1 trillion as of December 2010). Foreign pension funds, given their large size, could be a potentially major source of funding, but most have only recently started investing in infrastructure projects and have focused their attention in mature markets. The report concludes with a series of policy recommendations to facilitate infrastructure investments in new markets.

Finance and Investment

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In individual account pension systems, members bear the risks and consequences of their investment decisions. If participants behave as predicted by economic theory, such responsibility would be welfare-enhancing as members would invest and hold a portfolio of financial assets with a risk-return combination consistent with their investment horizon, degree of risk aversion and the portfolio of other assets they hold, including their human capital and, where relevant, their home. Behavioural economists and empirical researches have shown that in reality members are not particularly good at handling their retirement savings, either because they lack the necessary cognitive ability to solve the optimization problem, because they have insufficient will power to execute it, or even sometimes because they are overconfident. This paper describes the extent to which plan members make active investment decisions in these systems and assesses the policy solutions that have been put forward to facilitate choice. The paper offers a comparative analysis of ten countries that have implemented investment choice in the accumulation stage of their individual account pension system.

Finance and Investment