EFAMA welcomes the proposed revised OECD Roadmap. We would like to congratulate the OECD team working on private pensions for the wide-ranging research projects it undertook over the past years, which provided sound, evidence-based arguments to update the 2012 Roadmap.

We strongly support the main messages of the Roadmap, in particular the importance of

• ensuring the coherence of a DC pension component within a broader pension system.
• providing financial incentives to promote retirement saving and ensure inclusiveness.
• establishing straightforward, stable and common tax rules across retirement saving plans to avoid confusion and maintain the attractiveness of saving for retirement.
• informing savers about the cost of guarantees in terms of expected returns and retirement income.
• considering automatic enrolment to enhance participation in DC plans.
• limiting early access to retirement savings to exceptional circumstances.
• stressing the role of contributions and investment returns in reaching retirement income objectives.
• fostering competition in the DC market and focusing on value-for-money rather than cost alone.
• providing well-designed default options such as life cycle investment strategies.
• recognizing that annuities are not necessarily the best protection against longevity risk.
• providing flexibility in the choice of solutions for the pay-out phase.
• ensuring appropriate mortality assumptions are used by providers of lifetime pension income.
• ensuring effective, personalized, regular, consistent and unbiased communication to members.
• adopting national financial education strategies to increase awareness about the importance of retirement saving.

There are, however, a few points on which some clarifications and adjustments would be useful to reinforce the recommendations and avoid misunderstanding. Details can be found in the full response, downloadable above.