January 2026

China’s Private Pensions Draw Massive Interest, But Why Do Contributions Lag?

It has been one year since China fully implemented its private pension system. Data shows that the number of accounts has exceeded 150 million, with strong interest in account openings, but the actual contribution rate remains below 20%. China is expanding its private pension system to ease mounting pressure on its retirement framework as the population ages. While the basic public pension provides broad coverage, rising demographic stress and limited supplementary options have exposed structural gaps. The basic pension remains the system’s backbone,...

December 2025

US. New House Bill Revives Push for Automatic Retirement Accounts for Uncovered Workers

Representative Richard Neal D-Massachusetts reintroduced a bill Monday that would mandate employers with 10 or more workers to automatically enroll employees in individual retirement accounts, unless the company already provides a retirement plan. Neal, the ranking member of the House Committee on Ways and Means, said in a statement that the bill would create a retirement savings option for gig workers and other independent contractors who do not have access to defined contribution retirement accounts. “Automatic IRAs are simple and effective, and they have...

November 2025

Why private pensions can’t fix the ageing problem

Across Europe, politicians increasingly tout private pensions as a cure-all for reviving stagnant stock exchanges, fostering entrepreneurship and curbing ballooning public spending as populations age. But any governments that bet on this solution may be disappointed. A proliferation of individual piggybanks will not solve the deeper challenges that flow from having purchasing power ever-more concentrated in older hands. According to the United Nations, Europe’s population aged 20 to 64 will shrink by 31% between now and 2100, while longer lifespans...

October 2025

Research and analysis. Lessons on pensions engagement

By Department for Work & Pensions This report summarises research exploring consumer engagement and ways to increase public engagement with private pensions in the UK. It brings together findings from a rapid review of publicly available literature with intelligence from 6 expert interviews across the UK, Western Europe and Israel. This provides new insight and understanding into some of the factors influencing pensions engagement. The research highlights areas for further research and could be expanded in the future by seeking...

June 2025

Mongolia. Draft Law on Private Supplementary Pensions to Be Submitted

During its regular session on June 4, 2025, the Cabinet of Mongolia discussed the draft Law on Private Supplementary Pensions and decided to submit it to the State Great Khural (Parliament) of Mongolia. The draft Law is designed to regulate the implementation of private supplementary pension programs, the accumulation of supplementary pension funds, investment of pension funds, provision of private supplementary pensions, inheritance of pensions, the creation of databases, monitoring, and the protection of stakeholders' rights and interests. The adoption of the Law...

May 2025

US. Congress reintroduces ‘portable’ federally-run retirement plan bill for private sector workers

The Retirement Savings for Americans Act, which would offer a federally-run program for uncovered low- and middle-income workers, was reintroduced in the Senate last week by Senator John Hickenlooper (D-CO), after being reintroduced in the House April 7 by Representative Lloyd Smucker (R-PA). The RSAAlegislation to help private sectors workers without access to 401(k)s build wealth and save for retirement. Recommended For You “Too many hard-working Americans are not able to prepare financially for retirement. Over half of working employees lack access to...

April 2025

Longevity v interest rates – which poses the biggest risk for schemes?

Rising life expectancy poses a greater risk to UK corporate pension schemes than low interest rates, a report this week has suggested, but some industry experts have challenged the finding. Low interest rates have wreaked havoc on many schemes’ funding levels as liability calculations are revised up. Earlier this month the aggregate deficit of the Pension Protection Fund’s 7800 Index reached £254.2bn, up from £93.2bn a year ago. The cost of not hedging longevity in a low interest rate environment is proportionately greater...

Adequacy of future retirement incomes: new evidence for private sector employees

By Jonathan Cribb, Laurence O'Brien & David Sturrock In this report and the accompanying report on policy recommendations (Cribb et al., 2024a), we focus on the outlook for the adequacy of employees’ retirement incomes and changes to automatic enrolment. We do not here consider reforms that we broadly define as aimed at changing investments, costs and returns (including ‘pot for life’ and collective defined contribution pensions) but will return to consider these later in the Pensions Review. A separate report...

March 2025

Policy certainty and structural reforms required to ‘boost’ pension investment in UK assets

Policy uncertainty and regulatory hurdles are preventing UK pension funds from investing more into UK productive assets, the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) pool Border to Coast Pensions Partnership has warned. Its report called on the government to provide policy certainty, remove structural blockers to investment, and incentivise growth-driving capital allocation to enable increased pensions investment into UK productive assets. Border to Coast Pensions Partnership said there is a “significant” appetite for institutional investment in the UK, demonstrated by the fact that...

India. New Unified Pension Scheme Set to Launch in 2025

The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) has announced the introduction of the Unified Pension Scheme (UPS), set to take effect on April 1, 2025. This new scheme will provide an alternative for central government employees currently enrolled in the National Pension Scheme (NPS). The UPS aims to streamline pension benefits and enhance financial security for government employees, with specific eligibility criteria and contribution requirements outlined in the recent gazette notification. Who Can Participate in the UPS? The UPS is...