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.

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 taxonomy maps out the investment options available to private investors and the instruments and incentives available to attract private sector investment in infrastructure.

SMEs are important engines of innovation, growth, job creation and social cohesion. However, they can only reach their full potential if they obtain the finance necessary to start, sustain and grow their business. These voluntary principles provide broad guidelines on how to enhance access by SMEs to finance to help increase the contribution of SMEs to resilient and inclusive growth.

The OECD has produced assessments of country-specific investment strategies in G20 countries in order to improve the investment ecosystem, foster efficient infrastructure investment and support financing opportunities for SMEs. This booklet reproduces the highlights of these assessments which have been transmitted to G20 leaders for consideration at their Summit in November 2015..

This document outlines the objectives and key components of the framework, and presents the flexible, outcome-based, core competencies framework itself. The framework is designed to be applicable to youth aged 15 to 18, describing the basic level of financial literacy that is likely to be needed by this group to fully and safely participate in economic and financial life.

Financial literacy has become a key life skill for individuals as well as micro and small businesses. Today, 59 economies worldwide are implementing national strategies using guidance from the OECD/INFE High-level Principles on National Strategies for Financial Education. The Policy Handbook describes the experiences of these economies and addresses challenges that countries have faced in implementing the Principles.

Paris, 19-20 November 2015: Bringing together senior executives representing the world’s largest institutional investors, senior policy makers and regulators, debates focused on issues affecting long-term investment, including: asset allocation concepts; regulation; governance; energy and natural resources; and, brownfield and greenfield infrastructure.

2 December 2015 - The global financial and economic crisis of 2008 left the international monetary system with vulnerabilities caused by volatile capital flows and spillovers from national policy responses. The current policy environment has moved multilateral co-operation, openness and transparency to the top of the capital flow policy agenda.

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 paper reviews currency-based measures (CBMs) directed at banks in 49 countries between 2005 and 2013. These measures apply a discrimination, such as less favourable treatment, on the basis of the currency of an operation, typically foreign currencies. The new data shows that CBMs have been increasingly used in the post-crisis period, including for macro-prudential purposes.

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.

This brochure looks at how financial education can contribute to longer term policies aimed at facilitating the integration of refugees. The provision of financial education, as a complement to supply-side financial inclusion initiatives as well as other education and health support, can support refugees and migrants by facilitating social and labour market inclusion as well as improve their (financial) well-being.

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.

This article addresses the potential implications of climate change for the financial management of disaster risks. It outlines the contribution of insurance to reducing the economic disruption of disaster events and policy approaches to supporting the penetration of disaster insurance coverage and the capacity of insurance markets to absorb disaster risks.

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.

The OECD has been collecting and analysing official insurance statistics since the early 1980’s. In response to the financial crisis in 2008, the OECD has been expanding the scope of its Global Insurance Statistics exercise in order to extend its global reach.

When I was interviewing 200 bankers and banking staff working in Europe's financial centre the City of London, perhaps the most telling was the language. Not so much the profanities– though there were many of those–nor the technical stuff and three-letter acronyms (TLAs). Most striking were terms that seemed designed to sidestep any possibility of ethical discussion.

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

Singapore, 25 April 2016: This roundtable focused on key themes related to G20 work, in particular the views of the private sector on current work developed by the OECD for the G20 Presidency toward promoting more diversified and innovative infrastructure financing.

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 by the OECD Committee on Financial Markets examines Colombia’s position with respect to core principles related to financial systems.

This review of Latvia by the by the OECD Committee on Financial Markets examines Latvia’s position with respect to core principles related to financial 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).

This review of Latvia by the OECD Working Party of Governmental Experts on Insurance examines Latvia’s position with respect to core principles related to insurance systems.

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 publication applies the lessons from the OECD’s analysis of disaster risk financing practices and the development of guidance to the specific case of floods. This report provides an overview of the approaches that economies facing various levels of flood risk and economic development have taken to managing the financial impacts of floods.

Further structural reforms are needed to help the business sector boost productivity growth and overcome the key challenges of sluggish investment in advanced economies and excess capacity in emerging economies, according to a new OECD report.

The global economy is caught between two major headwinds: the reversal of the investment-heavy commodity supercycle; and the "L-shaped" recovery in advanced economies caused by the aftermath of the financial crisis and the interaction of re‐regulation with low and negative interest rates. This report analyses these issues and presents a financial outlook.

Public policy has an important role to play in promoting research and development (R&D) and the development, diffusion, and use of new knowledge and innovations. Fiscal incentives, including tax policies, should be directed at specific barriers, impediments or synergies to facilitate the desired level of investment in R&D and innovations.

One of the puzzles of the post-crisis period is low observed aggregate productivity growth. This report dissects the problem using the company and sector value-added data of more than 11,000 of the world’s largest listed non-financial and non-real-estate companies, taken from 20 different industry sectors.

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.

This document outlines the objectives and key components of the framework, and presents the flexible, outcome-based, core competencies framework itself. The framework is designed to be applicable to adults aged 18 and over, describing the basic level of financial literacy that is likely to be needed by this group to fully and safely participate in economic and financial life.

The core competencies frameworks on financial literacy highlight a range of financial literacy outcomes that may be considered important for adults, youth, or owners and managers of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) and of potential entrepreneurs.The core competencies frameworks on financial literacy for youth and adults were developed in response to a call from G20 Leaders in 2013.

Leaders of the G20 countries meeting at their Summit in Hangzhou, China, have called on the OECD to help develop an agenda to build a stronger, more innovative and inclusive world economy.

12/10/2016 – Adults in many countries around the world display low levels of financial knowledge, fail to engage in financial behaviours that could improve their financial security and have financial attitudes oriented towards the short-term, as shown in the OECD/INFE International Survey of Adult Financial Literacy Competencies released today.

This report contains the results of an international data collection survey that measured the financial literacy and financial inclusion of adults. A total of 51,650 adults aged 18 to 79 from 30 countries and economies participated in the survey.

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

Co-organised by the OECD and the German Federal Ministry of Finance, the seminar focused on the policy implications of the increasingly interconnected global financial and economic system and the need for an open and orderly regime for capital flows in the context of the review of the OECD Code of Liberalisation of Capital Movements.

Annamaria Lusardi is the Denit Trust Chair of Economics and Accountancy at the George Washington University School of Business. Following the release of new data focused on Americans’ financial capability, she draws attention to some of the findings in the study, focusing on three areas of great importance to the personal finances of Americans: student loans, indebtedness, and financial literacy.

The Danish financial sector is big and there is a high degree of inter-connectedness between banks, mortgage institutions and pension funds.

This paper explores the relationship between policy settings and extreme positive and negative growth events, what we call GDP tail risks, using quantile regression methods.

Certain growth-promoting policies can have negative side-effects by increasing the vulnerability of economies to financial crises. Typical examples are greater openness to financial flows or more liberalised financial markets.

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).

The OECD collects and analyses data on various insurance statistics such as the number of insurance companies and employees, insurance premiums and investments by insurance companies.

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.

This working paper explores the role of public debt managers in contingent liability management based on the results of a background OECD survey and the information provided by seven task force countries. The results indicate that there are certain roles and responsibilities assumed by the public debt managers in this field, while the degree of involvement differs widely across countries.

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.

Sovereign gross borrowing needs in the OECD area have continued to decline from the peaks attained in 2012. They are expected to be USD 9.5 trillion in 2017, approximately the same level as 2016.