Licensing Regulation and the Supervisory Structure of Private Pensions International Experience and Implications for China
Ageing populations and the un-sustainability of public pension arrangements have led governments around the world to rethink their pension systems. One solution is to increase the role of private pensions, either in the form of occupational or personal pension arrangements. As such private pensions increase globally, how to ensure they are effectively and efficiently regulated and supervised becomes an issue of significant importance.
China started to overhaul its old pay-as-you-go system in 1997, by implementing a multi-pillar model. Up until 2004 the government‘s efforts were mainly focused on reforming public pension arrangements. Since then, more attention has been paid to private pensions, which in China mainly take the form of voluntary occupational arrangements (known as Enterprise Annuities, or EA in short). This paper evaluates two aspects of the EA system, the licensing regime and the supervisory structure.