International Events

A PFR delegation led by PFR Board First Deputy Chairman A.V. Kurtin has paid a working visit to the OECD for attending a sitting of the OECD Working Group on Private Pensions, a seminar of the Investment Company Institute – the International Organization of Pension Supervisors – the OECD, and a high-level roundtable where OECD Secretary General Mr. Angel Gurria presented a new OECD edition “Business and Finance Outlook”.

The meetings highlighted the following issues:

• Main principles of private pensions regulation; taxation of private funded pension plans in OECD and EU member countries, the G20 report on regulation of insurance company and pension fund investment
• Financial awareness and pension planning; targeted pension income; low interest rate environment: can pension funds and insurance companies keep their promises?                        
• Interaction between public and private pension systems
• Designing a private pension system to supplement the public pension system

Presentation of the OECD edition “OECD Business and Finance Outlook”

June 24, 2015 – OECD Conference Center – Paris, France

OECD Secretary General Angel Gurria presented the OECD edition “Business and Finance Outlook at a high-level roundtable in Paris on June 24, 2015. The edition analyzes areas of activity of companies, banks, institutional investors and shadow banking mediators against the backdrop of slow growth, low interest rates and growing risks in the financial system. ‘Promises’ of growth, employment and pension income are seen as risky amid the absence of political decisions.

Agenda

Principal speaker: Angel Gurria, OECD Secretary General

Official speaker: Klaas Knot, Dutch Bank President

Official speaker: Ignazio Visco, Bank of Italy Governor

Final speaker: Gabriela Ramos, OECD Chief of Staff and G20 Sherpa

High-level roundtable

Meeting 1: Slow growth and low interest rate environment – what are the risks? Investment trends: short-term results at the expense of long-term interests or a long-term growth.

Appearance of shadow banks and new risks to credit leveraging and liquidity

Will the period of low interest rates continue? What are the political consequences?

Meeting 2: Are pension funds and insurers in danger?

Pension funds and annuities –can promises be kept?

The search for ways of higher profitability and influence on markets

Policy consequences and reaction

The roundtable involved members of the banking, insurance and pension communities, senior officers of pension and insurance market regulators, financial sector executives, scientists, journalists and other interested parties.