The members of the International Federation of Pension Fund Administrators (FIAP), acknowledge that the essence of social security is the protection of human beings in their most vulnerable stage. Applied to the pension system, this entails the provision of a pension, which ensures the right to a decent life during retirement.

Public policies or mechanisms that deny or restrict the right of citizens to a pension, leaving them unprotected in their old age, contradict this purpose, leaving them exposed to longevity, disability and survival risks.

One must bear in mind that one of the greatest challenges facing countries worldwide is population aging, caused by the reduction in the birth rate and life expectancy increases, as well as the fiscal and debt capacity constraints of countries, which bring pressure to bear on the PAYGO or defined benefits systems, making them financially unsustainable.

In this regard, we acknowledge that the individually funded pension system, although also affected by the increase in life expectancy, is the best tool for providing sustainable protection in old age, since, together with guaranteeing ownership of the funds by workers, it promotes their most efficient investment. Thus, the workers in FIAP member countries own funds equivalent to US$ 570 billion, up to 70% of which are attributable to returns on investments in mature systems. Nonetheless, we are aware that there is room for improvement, within the framework of a technical approach with a long-term outlook.

We are therefore committed to the ongoing promotion and implementation of best practices at all levels within our organizations and between the parties involved, in order to generate value, efficiency and the sustainability of the system, thus guaranteeing greater benefits for the more than 110 million members and future pensioners. Likewise, we undertake to work towards achieving the following priorities:

1. Promote the greater accumulation of funds in workers’ accounts, through voluntary savings, and working and insisting with the corresponding authorities in implementing timely parametric adjustments to the pension systems, due to changing demographic realities worldwide.
2. Promote efficiency in fund management and the application of investment strategies, to increase the individual savings of workers for obtaining better pensions.
3. Promote the implementation of policies for the expansion of pension coverage, bearing in mind the challenges imposed on the pension systems by high informality and new, more flexible work schedules for the so-called millennials.
4. Take into account the characteristics of women’s careers, to ensure full equity and enhance their incorporation, and the incorporation of vulnerable population groups in general, into the workforce.
5. Prioritize financial and social security education, in order to provide members with the necessary skills to make decisions, understand the system and obtain the greatest benefits from it, thus associating pension saving efforts with fund accumulation and the final pensions achieved.
6. Launch process optimization, through innovation and digital transformation, generating greater efficiency for the benefit of members and Social Security inclusion.
7. Promote investment in projects that increase the economic well-being and domestic savings of countries, a factor that has made workers the most important institutional investors, through their AFPs.
8. Promote the creation of a stable legal and regulatory framework, where the certainty and development of the pension systems is respected, safeguarding the rights and benefits acquired by members.

In this regard, we reaffirm the long-term nature of pension savings, which begin with the first job and are built up for decades, based on the efforts of members and the results generated for them by the Pension Fund Managers. We acknowledge their efforts and reaffirm our intention of ongoing alliance to jointly consolidate these savings entirely owned by individual workers.

We are concerned that the pension systems are sometimes transformed into fertile ground for populism, whose consequences will be suffered by future generations, when those who profited from these measures, or those responsible for their adoption, are no longer with us.

We therefore urge those entrusted with the implementation of public policies in our countries to ensure that innovative processes are framed within the margins of a technical discussion that ensures the sustainable improvement of pensions as the sole objective.

Download the FIAP Declaration in PDF here