OUTCOME OF THE
EUROSTAT-ILO-IMF-OECD
WORKSHOP ON PENSIONS
Advisory Expert Group on National Accounts
Paris, France, April 13-15, 2016
Paul Goebel
Policy Analyst
National Accounts Division, OECD
Introduction
• Pension workshop held in Paris on March 9-11, 2016
• Discussion topics:
– Pensions from a policy perspective
– Pension models and methodologies
– Actuarial guidelines and public sector accounting standards
– Recording of pensions according to statistical standards
– Preliminary results of countries’ analysis
– Experiences in the recording/communication of pensions
• Purpose of this presentation is to outline the
discussions of each of these topics and the conclusions
of the workshop, and to seek the Expert Group’s
guidance on two items stemming from the discussions
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Pensions from a Policy Perspective
• European Commission’s Ageing Report
– Effects of ageing on pensions, health care, long-term care,
education, unemployment benefits
– Uses data based on a harmonised reporting framework for public
pension expenditures, benefit ratios and replacement rates
• OECD’s Pensions at a Glance
– Prospects of pension entitlements at different earnings levels
– Gaps in data available for share of pension assets in total wealth,
breakdown of public/private pensions, average age of first
pension claims, number of people covered by private pension
plans
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Pension Models and Methodologies
• Czech Republic, Norway – dynamic microsimulation
models supported by actuarial software
• Germany – standardized model supported by Visual
Basic for Applications
• All models relied on detailed data on age-specific
probabilities of key life events
• Canada – methodological overview of compiling an
actuarial balance sheet
• ILO presentation on linking pension reporting to
actuarial sustainability, national accounting and
government finance statistics
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Actuarial Guidelines and
Public Sector Accounting Standards
• International Public Sector Accounting Standards
Board (IPSASB) consultations on how to account for
social benefits
• International Actuarial Association commented on the
importance of the sustainability of a pension scheme
and emphasised guidance of selecting a valuation
approach parallel to the financing approach
• Differences between IPSAS 25 and Government
Finance Statistics
– Considerable overlap between the SNA, GFSM and IPSAS
– Similar terminology used with different meanings (e.g. past
service costs and interest costs)
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Recording of Pensions According to
Statistical Standards
• Recording of pension entitlements
– Options to determine whether pension entitlements should be
recorded in the core accounts versus the supplementary table
• Recording of property income in the case of liabilities
between a pension manager and a DB pension fund
– Options to classify the imputed property income on the claim
towards the pension manager as: investment income payable on
pension entitlements, or as interest
– Considerations about the recording of the various
events/transactions affecting the claim of a pension funds
towards the pension manager more generally
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Country Experiences
• Switzerland
– Ability to withdraw retirement benefits in order to purchase a
house; how such a withdrawal is treated in the national accounts
• Mexico
– Actuarial estimates from various sources; need to evaluate
effects of different methods and assumptions
• Netherlands
– Preliminary results under four scenarios with different retirement
ages
– Estimates a price-volume breakdown for changes in pension
entitlements
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Recording/Communication of
Pensions
• Canada – Various reports on the Canada Pension Plan
– Perspective of partially-funded scheme as part of a social
contract
– Cooperation between actuaries, accountants and auditors in
order to conduct effective disclosure
• United States
– Bringing actuarial measures of DB pensions into the US national
accounts
– Pension liabilities in the US financial accounts
– Results for the supplementary table
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Conclusions
• National accounts facing increasing user demands
• Supplementary table on pensions: still issues to be
resolved with regard to the implementation, both in
conceptual terms and in practical terms
• Need for greater cooperation across all domains
involved in pension statistics
• Consistency is a common challenge in compiling data
and reporting on multiple pension schemes
• One number does not fit all purposes, e.g. (business)
accounting versus sustainability
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For Discussion
• The AEG is requested to:
– Provide guidance on the next steps for addressing the issue of
differing assumptions in the estimation of pension entitlements
– Provide ideas and suggestions (on the need) to further increase
cooperation with the actuarial and public sector accounting
domains
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Thank you for your attention!
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