Iceland tops global pensions league, Britain slips -survey

12:21 am Tuesday, October 11th, 2022

LONDON (Reuters) – Iceland offers the best pension provisions, followed by the Netherlands and Denmark while Britain slipped a spot to 10th place in the world ranking, an annual survey showed on Tuesday.

Iceland scored top marks overall for the second year running for the level of private and public sector pension benefits available, the sustainability of the system to last decades into the future and the quality of its governance, according to the survey by pensions consultants Mercer.

Britain, which has been in the eye of a pensions storm in recent weeks as a sharp rise in gilts left the sector over-exposed to market moves, came in below a number of European countries as well as below Australia and Singapore.

However, the UK scored more highly than 20th-ranked the United States, particularly over the adequacy of retirement provision and the integrity of the system.

Britain was also higher than Germany, France and Italy, which scored poorly on the sustainability of their provisions and came in at 17th, 22nd and 32nd place respectively, while Canada slipped to 13th place from 12th last year.

Japan was ranked in 35th place, China in 36th and India at 41.

Mexico shot eight places up the rankings to 29 due to pension reform, Mercer said.

The survey compares 44 retirement income systems globally and covers 65% of the world’s population. It was conducted by the Mercer CFA Institute with Monash Business School.

“Individuals (around the world) have been assuming more responsibility for their retirement savings for some time; amidst high levels of inflation, rising interest rates and greater uncertainty about economic conditions, they are doing so in an increasingly complex and volatile environment,” said David Knox, senior partner at Mercer and lead author of the survey.

“Policymakers must do all they can to ensure retirement schemes are supported, developed and well-regulated.”

(Reporting by Carolyn Cohn; Editing by Susan Fenton)