Recent years have witnessed intense pension reform efforts in countries around the globe, often involving an increased use of asset-backed pension arrangements. These arrangements are likely to play an increasingly important role in delivering retirement income in many countries and the accumulated pension assets will play an increasing role in financial markets, notably as a source of long-term savings.

Pension Markets in Focus provides detailed and comparable statistics on asset-backed pension systems around the world. This annual statistical report contributes to the effort of making data on retirement savings available, as the OECD Core Principles of Private Pension Regulation advocates for, to enable regulators and stakeholders to evaluate the design and operation of pension systems relative to their goals. These statistics can support policy discussions through international comparisons and peer learning, and are the basis of policy recommendations in the OECD series of Pension Reviews. These statistics can also be helpful to private sector representatives, journalists, academics and anyone interested in asset-backed pension systems.