Mandate:      Adopted by the Committee on Financial Markets by written procedure [COM/DAF/CMF/AS(2024)3/REV2]

I. Objectives

The overarching objective of the Working Party on Insurance and Pensions (WPIP) is to assist the Committee on Financial Markets (CMF) in promoting fair, efficient, open and sound market-oriented insurance and pensions systems, based on high levels of transparency, confidence, and integrity. In doing so, it considers the important role these sectors play in wider financial markets and in capital allocation, managing financial risks, and the recognised social objectives of these systems.

The intermediary objectives of the WPIP are the following:

•   Strengthen the capacity of funded pensions systems to ensure adequate retirement income within overall pensions systems and address the challenges of ageing;

•   Strengthen the capacity of individuals, businesses, and governments to address financial and other risks, including disaster risks, through enhanced and robust insurance and funded pension systems;

•   Enhance the long-term efficiency, resilience, stability and inclusiveness of insurance markets and funded pensions systems, taking into account the role that technology and innovation can play;

•   Promote the contribution of pension funds and insurance companies as institutional investors to savings and investment, to the financing of businesses and individuals, to supporting growth, and to meeting sustainability and climate transition challenges, as these align with their primary duties to beneficiaries and policyholders;

•   Promote risk awareness and adequate consumer protection in insurance and funded pensions.

II. Working methods

To achieve these objectives, the WPIP shall:

•   Serve as a forum for a policy dialogue for insurance and pensions supervisors, and relevant policy authorities, with a view to increasing collaboration and knowledge-sharing;

•   Carry out surveillance of insurance and pensions markets developments and of their impact on economic growth, development and other policy goals;

•   Collect, analyse and disseminate comparative insurance and pensions data;

•   Produce policy analysis with the aim of elaborating policy options and good practices for adequate policies and regulations;

•   Support the development, implementation and dissemination of OECD standards in the area of insurance and funded pensions systems;

III. Co-ordination arrangements

To achieve its objectives, the WPIP shall:

•   Maintain close working relationships with other OECD bodies, in particular the Employment, Labour and Social Affairs Committee and its Working Party on Social Policy, and the Investment Committee and its Advisory Task Force the OECD Codes of Liberalisation;

•   Co-operate with other international organisations and fora in respect of insurance and pensions with a view to co-ordinate work and avoid duplication with them, and to contribute to their work as relevant, in particular the, the G7, the G20, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation and the International Association of Insurance Supervisors;

•   Consult and engage with the major stakeholders in the insurance and pensions field, in particular the International Organisation of Pension Supervisors, the International Social Security Association, as well as other relevant stakeholders from the industry, consumers and non-governmental organisations.

IV. Composition

The WPIP is composed of national authorities responsible for the regulation and supervision of insurers, reinsurers and funded pensions providers, and the authorities responsible for policy for these two sectors.