With relevant reflections on pension systems around the world, the international seminar of the International Federation of Pension Fund Administrators, FIAP, organized together with the Dominican Association of Pension Fund Administrators (ADAFP) called “Challenges and solutions for pensions today and tomorrow”.

During the final day, which took place this Friday, October 7, in the Dominican Republic, prominent international experts gave their views, including Pablo Antolín, head of the OECD’s private pension unit, who stated that “the majority of OECD countries in the last two decades have introduced and strengthened capitalization, it is one of the essential components to finance individual pensions, especially in the future”.

For his part, Bernardo González, president of the Mexican Association of Retirement Fund Administrators (A.C, AMAFORE), stressed that “with the pension reform, from 2021, there are better pensions for more workers in Mexico. The weeks required to have access to a severance pension in advanced age and old age were reduced”.

The purpose of the meeting was to analyze the challenges faced by pension systems due to the increasing longevity of the population, the informality of labor markets and the particular situation of women. In this sense, Waldo Tapia, leading labor market specialist and IDB pension coordinator, pointed out that “just as we must strengthen the participation of women, we must also favor the employability of older adults. Incentives must be generated so that the population over 65 years of age can contribute for longer and, at the same time, be equally employable”.

Regarding the gaps between men and women in terms of pensions, he argued that “the gap in the labor market generates the gap in the pension system. In terms of coverage, only 36% of women have access to a contributory pension, which is equivalent to a gap of between 8 and 10 percentage points compared to men”.

In the second and third blocks of this session, the balance and improvements required by the Dominican pension system were analyzed in light of its 21 years of operation, and the role of pension funds in the Dominican stock market, respectively.

Finally, Guillermo Arthur, president of FIAP, pointed out that one of the challenges that individual capitalization systems will face will be “adjusting the contribution rate, bringing it closer to the OECD countries as Mexico did; update the retirement age according to life expectancies, hopefully automatically; develop more incentives for voluntary pension savings, such as tax incentives, greater liquidity and automatic enrollment”. Finally, in his closing remarks, he reflected on the importance that pension funds have had in obtaining palpable social benefits for all workers, in a virtuous circle, an example of which is the experience of the Dominican Republic.

It should be noted that the second day included the participation of prominent personalities, including the economist Xavier Sala i Martín, professor at Columbia University, who opened the day with a private presentation on “The great challenges of pension systems” .

To download the seminar presentations, please visit our website: https://www.fiapinternacional.org/seminario/xix-seminario-internacional-fiap-desafios-y-soluciones-para-las-pensiones-de-hoy-y-manana/

With relevant reflections on pension systems around the world, the international seminar of the International Federation of Pension Fund Administrators, FIAP, organized together with the Dominican Association of Pension Fund Administrators (ADAFP) called “Challenges and solutions for pensions today and tomorrow”.

During the final day, which took place this Friday, October 7, in the Dominican Republic, prominent international experts gave their views, including Pablo Antolín, head of the OECD’s private pension unit, who stated that “the majority of OECD countries in the last two decades have introduced and strengthened capitalization, it is one of the essential components to finance individual pensions, especially in the future”.

For his part, Bernardo González, president of the Mexican Association of Retirement Fund Administrators (A.C, AMAFORE), stressed that “with the pension reform, from 2021, there are better pensions for more workers in Mexico. The weeks required to have access to a severance pension in advanced age and old age were reduced”.

The purpose of the meeting was to analyze the challenges faced by pension systems due to the increasing longevity of the population, the informality of labor markets and the particular situation of women. In this sense, Waldo Tapia, leading labor market specialist and IDB pension coordinator, pointed out that “just as we must strengthen the participation of women, we must also favor the employability of older adults. Incentives must be generated so that the population over 65 years of age can contribute for longer and, at the same time, be equally employable”.

Regarding the gaps between men and women in terms of pensions, he argued that “the gap in the labor market generates the gap in the pension system. In terms of coverage, only 36% of women have access to a contributory pension, which is equivalent to a gap of between 8 and 10 percentage points compared to men”.

In the second and third blocks of this session, the balance and improvements required by the Dominican pension system were analyzed in light of its 21 years of operation, and the role of pension funds in the Dominican stock market, respectively.

Finally, Guillermo Arthur, president of FIAP, pointed out that one of the challenges that individual capitalization systems will face will be “adjusting the contribution rate, bringing it closer to the OECD countries as Mexico did; update the retirement age according to life expectancies, hopefully automatically; develop more incentives for voluntary pension savings, such as tax incentives, greater liquidity and automatic enrollment”. Finally, in his closing remarks, he reflected on the importance that pension funds have had in obtaining palpable social benefits for all workers, in a virtuous circle, an example of which is the experience of the Dominican Republic.

It should be noted that the second day included the participation of prominent personalities, including the economist Xavier Sala i Martín, professor at Columbia University, who opened the day with a private presentation on “The great challenges of pension systems” .

To download the seminar presentations, please visit our website: https://www.fiapinternacional.org/seminario/xix-seminario-internacional-fiap-desafios-y-soluciones-para-las-pensiones-de-hoy-y-manana/