Have you chosen the best pension scheme for you? And how can you be sure it will provide a secure income when you actually retire?  Pensions could spark a major social crisis in OECD countries in the next two decades as the baby boom generation reaches retirement age and the proportion of pensioners increases.

As the sole international standard-setter when it comes to regulating occupational pensions, the OECD plays a key role in helping govenments meet this challenge.   OECD Guidelines for protecting the rights of members of pensions schemes represent a benchmark for good practice that member countries are expected to use as they work to ensure that private pensions successfully complement social security pension systems for the growing population of retirees.

The OECD is now working on guidelines on pension funding, as well as on the security of benefits and investment.  The OECD also continues to develop new international standards, data and policy analysis and to strengthen its financial and regulatory monitoring.  It also works hard to strengthened with non-member countries in Asian, Central and Eastern European and Latin American economies. 

The OECD is also examining ways of improving financial literacy in member countries, to develop good practices and increase transparency in retail financial markets through consumer protection regulation.  This will become all the more necessary as individuals are increasingly expected to bear retirement risks directly, with decreasing involvement of the state or their employers.