Pension Risk Matters

Sometimes seeing over the other side of the desk is difficult, if not impossible. That's too bad because regulators and those they oversee have a lot to learn from each other. This is especially true if you embrace a primary goal of ultimately allowing for complete self-governing as a way to ensure more efficient markets.

"Pension Funds' Risk-Management Framework: Regulation and Supervisory Oversight" by Fiona Stewart (Working Paper No. 11, International Organisation of Pension Supervisors, November 2009) gets us part of the way. This new compendium of rules and regulations categorizes pension risk rules for Australia, Brazil, Germany, Kenya, Mexico, Netherlands and the UK in four areas - "management oversight and culture, strategy and risk assessment, control systems and information, reporting and communication." An audit checklist that pension supervisors can use in their examination work is offered as an appendix as is a convenient summary table that lays out country-specific risk management regulations about things such as the role of the Chief Risk Officer.

The two sides of the fence may never shake hands but studies like this enhance the understanding as to what is expected of plan sponsors by regulators.