IPE: Regulators should focus on 'improving risk management' at pension funds

22 September 2011

Regulators worldwide should focus on measures that improve risk management, rather than seeking to discourage risky assets outright, according to pensions experts at a recent Allianz Global Investors roundtable.

Industry figures called on regulators to focus on "essential" issues, such as scale, tax incentives, auto-enrolment, easy-to-understand default options and financial literacy for young people.

Elizabeth Corley, chief executive at Allianz Global Investors Europe, said retirement income would become an "endangered species" if the second and third pillars were not effective enough. She also warned that any new pension designs that failed to meet people's expectations would be seen as investing in a "black box" and could further erode trust in the pension system.

Gordon Clark, Halford Mackinder professor of geography at the university of Oxford, largely agreed, saying that in light of ongoing financial turmoil and ageing Western societies, it was vital to find the right balance between social security and workplace pensions."The first pillar will be discounted in the future, so governments will need to make the second pillar compulsory, as most of the contributors are not conscious of their lifetime needs", he said.

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