Responsible business conduct (RBC) is an essential part of an open international investment climate. The activities of multinational enterprises often span multiple countries and many cultural, legal, and regulatory environments.

The current low interest rate environment poses a significant risk for the long-term financial viability of pension funds and insurance companies, as they seek to generate sufficient returns to meet promises, according to a new OECD report.

This chapter from the 2015 OECD Business and Finance Outlook examines the potential impact of an environment of protracted low interest rates on pension systems and life insurance companies. It describes the mechanisms through which prolonged low interest rates can affect the solvency position of these institutions and uses available data to assess potential impacts.

In a historic visit by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang to the OECD in Paris, the People’s Republic of China today decided to enhance longstanding collaboration with the OECD and to join the OECD Development Centre.

Addis Ababa - Part of the 3rd International Conference on Financing for Development, this event explored strategies to leverage Africa’s pension funds and other sources of private financing to develop Africa’s infrastructure. Ways to improve the investment climate in Africa using the recently updated Policy Framework for Investment were also be addressed.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: This Symposium addressed cutting-edge issues to further integrate financial education and financial consumer protection policies with a view to enhancing financial well-being and to address the challenges and identify solutions in delivering effective financial education.

The OECD presented today the final package of measures for a comprehensive, coherent and co-ordinated reform of the international tax rules to be discussed by G20 Finance Ministers at their meeting on 8 October, in Lima, Peru.

The reforms to the pensions system in Mexico, especially the introduction of a system of individual defined contribution accounts, have significantly improved the system’s financial sustainability.

As part of continuing efforts to support market confidence and business integrity, the OECD has launched in Asia a new set of corporate governance principles that were endorsed at the G20 Finance Ministers meeting in September 2015.

Taking place in Berlin on 29-30 October, the 2015 Global Forum will explore current trends in global private pension systems and the ways in which pension regulatory and supervisory authorities are managing and reacting to the evolution of these systems.

This stocktaking report profiles the tax treatment of funded private pension plans across all OECD and EU countries. The information refers to 2015 or the latest year with available data and covers all types of funded private pension plans in each country.

29 October 2015, Paris - Resilient cities and SMEs are critical to reducing the economic disruption from climate-related disaster events. In the run up to COP21, these remarks by Adrian Blundell-Wignall at the AXA-UNEP-PSI Conference on Climate Resilience address the importance of building resilience to climate change risks at the level of cities and SMEs.

This event explored the potential contribution of the (re)insurance sector to climate change mitigation and adaptation, including: the role of the insurance sector in a climate change agreement; managing the financial risks of extreme events in a changing climate; investing in the transition to a low-carbon economy; and the role of regulators in addressing climate change risks.

This OECD-UNEP COP21 session will explore whether the governance of institutional investments, including in particular any applicable fiduciary standards, adequately considers climate change-related risks and green finance opportunities, and whether guidelines may be needed in this area to support investment decision-making.

Climate change is a major political and economic challenge. This paper sketches out its relevance for the financial sector. Necessary low-carbon investments imply a significant yet manageable financing gap. Beyond capital mobilisation that has attracted most attention until now, the main challenge is ensuring a transition-consistent capital reallocation.

4-5 February 2016 - Mumbai, India‌‌: This seminar addressed emerging frameworks for financial consumer protection across Asia; financial markets and better outcomes for consumers; improving policy by analysing consumer complaints data; technology and alternative delivery channels and promoting financial consumer protection, inclusion and investor education.

Amsterdam, 20-21 April 2016: This symposium addressed the challenges of financial resilience throughout life and the importance of financial education.

28 April 2016, Paris - OECD, IOPS and the World Bank are joining forces to expand the reach of the OECD’s Global Pension Statistics database and annual Pensions Markets in Focus report. This collaboration with the World Bank will help bring data from emerging and developing economies that are not currently included in the database.

This review of Colombia by the OECD Working Party on Private Pensions examines Colombia’s position with respect to core principles related to pension systems.

Jakarta, 1-2 June 2016: This seminar addressed the importance of financial literacy and financial education for empowering micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs).

What is blocking business investment and productivity growth? OECD Business and Finance Outlook 2016 will focus on fragmentation at all levels of the global economy: heterogeneous policies, rules, laws and industry practices that create perverse incentives and block business efficiency.

This report provides estimates of the costs associated with bank resolution both in terms of the expected costs that might arise should a bank fail (i.e. as "ex-post" costs), as well as the cost associated with the likelihood that a solvent bank might fail (i.e. as "ex-ante" costs) over the next year.

Auckland, New Zealand, 12-13 October 2016. Discussions focused on innovative policies and strategies around financial education and consumer protection.

9-10 November 2016, Hong Kong, China - The 2016 Global Forum will focus on making private pensions work better and, in particular, consumer protection in the pensions area.

OECD Pensions Outlook 2016, to be published on Monday 5 December at 12p.m. Paris time, assesses policy issues regarding strengthening pension systems and, in particular, funded pension plans.

Funded Pension arrangements, in particular defined contribution ones, are playing a growing role in complementing retirement income from public sources in OECD countries and worldwide. However, their design needs to be improved, according to a new OECD report.

This study explores the effectiveness of the incentive mechanisms embedded within the UK’s Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS) for banks’ to expand their supply of lending to medium sized enterprises (SMEs).

Malaysia has sustained over four decades of rapid, inclusive growth, reducing its dependence on agriculture and commodity exports to become a more diversified, modern and open economy.

In 2014, the Financial Stability Board (FSB), in collaboration with the IMF and OECD, prepared a report for G20 leaders that sought to assess the cross-border consistencies and global financial stability implications of structural banking reform measures. To further examine structural banking reform measures taken since 2008, the OECD circulated a survey. This report describes the outcome of this survey.

Since the financial crisis, infrastructure investment has moved up the political agenda in most countries – now also including the USA. Asia is often seen as the world’s infrastructure laboratory, with massive construction of transport and energy projects. This article discusses infrastructure investment, private finance, and institutional investors in Asia from a global perspective.

Paris, 8 March 2017: Taking place on International Women's Day, this OECD-hosted conference considered questions such as gender differences in financial literacy and inclusion; women working in the informal economy and the role of business: gender differences in the changing pensions landscape; empowering women to fight back against corruption and engaging men to support gender equality in the workplace.

This paper describes and provides guidance on policy and practice relating to financial education for MSMEs and potential entrepreneurs in Asia, with a particular focus on Indonesia.

Promoting responsible business conduct in the financial sector is vital to building a sustainable global economy. This paper will help institutional investors implement the due diligence recommendations of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises in order to prevent or address adverse impacts related to human and labour rights, the environment, and corruption in their investment portfolios.

Insurance is invisible yet it is everywhere. It is intimately linked to how people live their lives, grow their businesses, save and invest their incomes, anticipate what is essential to them and how they protect themselves against risk.

The OECD Business and Finance Scoreboard accompanies the OECD Business and Finance Outlook by providing a commented overview of selected indicators and data related to corporate performance, banking, capital markets, pensions and investments.

21 June 2017, Paris: Co-organised by the International Network for Pensions, Aging, and Retirement Research (INPARR), the OECD and IOPS, this seminar provided a window into the latest thinking and research that sheds light on where pension plans and designs are headed in the future and challenges to their future sustainability and efficiency.

24-25 October 2017, Mauritius - The 2017 global forum explored current trends in global private pension systems and the ways in which pension regulatory and supervisory authorities are managing and reacting to those trends.

In 2016, private pension assets reached their highest-ever level at over USD38 trillion in OECD countries, according to Pensions Markets in Focus. Investment losses resulting from the financial crisis have been recouped in almost all reporting OECD countries.

New Delhi, India, 8-9 November 2017. This symposium looked at how to implement effective financial education policies in a changing financial landscape with a focus on financial education in the digital age.

Riding the wave of technological innovation in finance, the robo-advice model has emerged as one potential solution for helping individuals manage their pensions and invest savings for retirement. This report provides an overview of the types of robo-advisors that are now available and discusses the potential benefits, risks and challenges of such platforms.

Innovative applications of technology for financial services, or FinTech, are already being used to improve communication with consumers and their engagement with their pension plans. This report provides an overview of how technology is being used to improve pension design and delivery and how regulators are managing these changes.

11 December 2017, OECD Paris - The 8th annual OECD high-level breakfast event brings together leading investors and senior government officials for informal, focused dialogue, to examine key developments and identify solutions to enable achievement of NDCs and the two-degree commitment.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are increasingly turning to alternative sources of financing, while new bank lending is declining in a number of countries. Many SMEs remain over-reliant on bank credit, however, and the take-up of instruments other than straight debt varies greatly from one country to another, according to a new OECD report.

23 February 2018, Dublin - This event focussed on how to build better retirement by ensuring value for money, implementing automatic enrolment and designing retirement pay-outs.

The roundtable offers a forum for regulators, policy makers, experts, practitioners, scholars and international organisations in Asia. This year’s edition will focus on recent developments in capital markets and on capital markets of the future.

Riding the wave of technological innovation in finance, the robo-advice model has emerged as one potential solution to increase the accessibility and affordability of getting help to invest savings for retirement. OECD's Jessica Mosher looks at the potential benefits, risks and challenges.

Focusing on Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, Maria José Roa, a Senior Researcher at the Center for Latin American Monetary Studies, looks at how financial literacy survey results can play a role in the development of financial inclusion strategies

This publication compiles a series of articles that focus on the impact of digitalisation and technology in the areas of financial markets, insurance, and private pensions. It also discusses the tools and policies needed to ensure that the challenges posed by digitalisation result in better outcomes and better management of the risks involved.

The survey monitors and compares the investment behaviour, asset levels, and performances of the largest institutional investors in each region or country covered and analyses in greater depth the general trends observed at a national level.

25-26 April 2018, Tokyo - This event will bring together key stakeholders from the Asia Pacific region to discuss policy issues relevant to the sound development of insurance and private pensions markets.