European and global financial markets are in unprecedented turmoil and our economies have rapidly slowed down. This crisis has a huge impact and consequences on the European citizens and our societies as a whole. Funded pensions are not exceptions as both their assets and liabilities are strongly affected. The stressed financial markets also pose major problems for well-developed pension countries as the value of assets decreases drastically and even lower interest rates further increase the value of liabilities. The Europeans still mainly rely on PAYG social security pensions and low economic growth and lower employment levels together with aging population make these pensions increasingly unsustainable and may well lead to decreasing replacement rates from public social security pensions.
We closely follow the on-going crisis and its impact on issues relevant for funded pensions and our Members. We discuss relevant issues in our working groups and take proper actions. We also work in good co-operation with other EU-level trade associations e.g. on financial market regulatory and policy issues. Supporting our Members over this crisis is our current top priority.
