Leaders of the G20 countries meeting at their Summit in Hangzhou, China, have called on the OECD to help develop an agenda to build a stronger, more innovative and inclusive world economy.

12/10/2016 – Adults in many countries around the world display low levels of financial knowledge, fail to engage in financial behaviours that could improve their financial security and have financial attitudes oriented towards the short-term, as shown in the OECD/INFE International Survey of Adult Financial Literacy Competencies released today.

This report contains the results of an international data collection survey that measured the financial literacy and financial inclusion of adults. A total of 51,650 adults aged 18 to 79 from 30 countries and economies participated in the survey.

Auckland, New Zealand, 12-13 October 2016. Discussions focused on innovative policies and strategies around financial education and consumer protection.

Co-organised by the OECD and the German Federal Ministry of Finance, the seminar focused on the policy implications of the increasingly interconnected global financial and economic system and the need for an open and orderly regime for capital flows in the context of the review of the OECD Code of Liberalisation of Capital Movements.

Annamaria Lusardi is the Denit Trust Chair of Economics and Accountancy at the George Washington University School of Business. Following the release of new data focused on Americans’ financial capability, she draws attention to some of the findings in the study, focusing on three areas of great importance to the personal finances of Americans: student loans, indebtedness, and financial literacy.

The Danish financial sector is big and there is a high degree of inter-connectedness between banks, mortgage institutions and pension funds.

9-10 November 2016, Hong Kong, China - The 2016 Global Forum will focus on making private pensions work better and, in particular, consumer protection in the pensions area.

This paper explores the relationship between policy settings and extreme positive and negative growth events, what we call GDP tail risks, using quantile regression methods.

Certain growth-promoting policies can have negative side-effects by increasing the vulnerability of economies to financial crises. Typical examples are greater openness to financial flows or more liberalised financial markets.

OECD Pensions Outlook 2016, to be published on Monday 5 December at 12p.m. Paris time, assesses policy issues regarding strengthening pension systems and, in particular, funded pension plans.

Funded Pension arrangements, in particular defined contribution ones, are playing a growing role in complementing retirement income from public sources in OECD countries and worldwide. However, their design needs to be improved, according to a new OECD report.

This study explores the effectiveness of the incentive mechanisms embedded within the UK’s Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS) for banks’ to expand their supply of lending to medium sized enterprises (SMEs).

The OECD collects and analyses data on various insurance statistics such as the number of insurance companies and employees, insurance premiums and investments by insurance companies.

Malaysia has sustained over four decades of rapid, inclusive growth, reducing its dependence on agriculture and commodity exports to become a more diversified, modern and open economy.

In 2014, the Financial Stability Board (FSB), in collaboration with the IMF and OECD, prepared a report for G20 leaders that sought to assess the cross-border consistencies and global financial stability implications of structural banking reform measures. To further examine structural banking reform measures taken since 2008, the OECD circulated a survey. This report describes the outcome of this survey.

This working paper explores the role of public debt managers in contingent liability management based on the results of a background OECD survey and the information provided by seven task force countries. The results indicate that there are certain roles and responsibilities assumed by the public debt managers in this field, while the degree of involvement differs widely across countries.

Since the financial crisis, infrastructure investment has moved up the political agenda in most countries – now also including the USA. Asia is often seen as the world’s infrastructure laboratory, with massive construction of transport and energy projects. This article discusses infrastructure investment, private finance, and institutional investors in Asia from a global perspective.

Sovereign gross borrowing needs in the OECD area have continued to decline from the peaks attained in 2012. They are expected to be USD 9.5 trillion in 2017, approximately the same level as 2016.

Adopted by the OECD Council on 23 February 2017, this Recommendation provides high-level policy guidance for designing a strategy for addressing the financial impacts of disasters on individuals, businesses and sub-national levels of governments, as well as the implication for public finances.

Paris, 8 March 2017: Taking place on International Women's Day, this OECD-hosted conference considered questions such as gender differences in financial literacy and inclusion; women working in the informal economy and the role of business: gender differences in the changing pensions landscape; empowering women to fight back against corruption and engaging men to support gender equality in the workplace.

This paper describes and provides guidance on policy and practice relating to financial education for MSMEs and potential entrepreneurs in Asia, with a particular focus on Indonesia.

This paper looks at the application of behavioural economics in the area of financial consumer protection and how numerous governments are testing and implementing its application for policies promoting financial consumer protection. It highlights the opportunity for behavioural economics to help provide cost-efficient ways of making policy more effective at promoting positive outcomes for consumers.

The United States’ Social Security Act of 1935 set up a social insurance programme for American workers, providing them with at least some degree of certainty about income after retirement. But, in today’s environment, to what degree do Americans feel secure about their retirement? This article looks at the results of a new survey on American’s understanding of retirement preparedness and the perceived role of Social Security.

Promoting responsible business conduct in the financial sector is vital to building a sustainable global economy. This paper will help institutional investors implement the due diligence recommendations of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises in order to prevent or address adverse impacts related to human and labour rights, the environment, and corruption in their investment portfolios.

This report discusses the implications of the digitalisation of finance for financial education and relevant consumer protection issues and provides an overview of digital financial services around the world.

This paper presents the findings of an international stocktaking of the regulatory frameworks that apply to institutional investment in different jurisdictions and how these frameworks are interpreted by institutional investors in terms of their ability or responsibility to integrate environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors in their governance processes.

13/05/2017 - With the frequency and scope of cyber incidents growing significantly, this report provides an overview of the market for cyber insurance as well as the current challenges in terms of data availability, quantification of cyber risks, awareness and misunderstanding about coverage. It identifies potential policy measures to address some of the main challenges to the development of an effective cyber insurance market.

Insurance is invisible yet it is everywhere. It is intimately linked to how people live their lives, grow their businesses, save and invest their incomes, anticipate what is essential to them and how they protect themselves against risk.

24 May 2017: PISA 2015 Results (Volume IV): Students’ Financial Literacy explores students’ experience with and knowledge about money and provides an overall picture of 15-year-olds’ ability to apply their accumulated knowledge and skills to real-life situations involving financial issues and decisions.

Around one in four students in the 15 countries and economies* that took part in the latest OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) test of financial literacy are unable to make even simple decisions on everyday spending, while only one in ten can understand complex issues, such as income tax.

The OECD Business and Finance Scoreboard accompanies the OECD Business and Finance Outlook by providing a commented overview of selected indicators and data related to corporate performance, banking, capital markets, pensions and investments.

Globalisation has failed to create a level playing field in trade, investment and corporate behaviour, being one of the factors contributing to a backlash against openness in many countries and a decline in confidence in government institutions.

This working paper assesses the impact of climate mitigation policies and the quality of the investment environment on investment and innovation in renewable power in OECD and G20 countries. It also examines how countries’ investment environments interact with climate mitigation policies to influence investment and patent activity in renewable power.

The global economy is expected to pick up moderately but greater efforts are needed to ensure that the benefits from growth and globalisation are more widely shared, according to the OECD’s latest Economic Outlook.

21 June 2017, Paris: Co-organised by the International Network for Pensions, Aging, and Retirement Research (INPARR), the OECD and IOPS, this seminar provided a window into the latest thinking and research that sheds light on where pension plans and designs are headed in the future and challenges to their future sustainability and efficiency.

This report describes the levels of financial literacy of adults in G20 countries and the Netherlands and Norway, guest countries under the G20 German Presidency. It was presented to G20 Leaders at their 2017 Summit meeting in Hamburg on 8 July 2017.

This collection compiles the contributions of senior policy experts, academics, and economic practitioners on developments in the financial integration and financial regulation of cross-border capital flows since the 2008 global financial crisis at the OECD High-Level Seminar “Open and Orderly Capital Movements” held in October 2016.

‌07/09/2017 - Flooding is one of the most common, wide-reaching and destructive natural perils, affecting on average about 250 million people around the world each year. OECD work on the financial management of flood risk has identified a number of ways that policy makers can improve the way they manage the financial implications of floods.

“Insurtech”is the term being used to describe the new technologies with the potential to bring innovation to the insurance sector and impact the regulatory practices of insurance markets. This report catalogues these technologies and examines how InsurTech is being funded and how insurers are engaging with the start-ups entering the market.

While the contribution of MSMEs to national economies is widely recognised, their financial education needs are not always being met and low levels of financial literacy pose a potential barrier to successful business creation and growth. Covering 21 economies, this stocktaking report identifies the main policy challenges and good practices.

Hanoi, Vietnam, 3-4 October 2017. This conference provided a forum to discuss best practices on developing financial education and consumer protection in Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries.

This chapter from "The Pursuit of Gender Equality: An Uphill Battle" shows that two-thirds of the 30 economies participating in a financial literacy survey reported that gender differences in financial knowledge and confidence persist.

24-25 October 2017, Mauritius - The 2017 global forum explored current trends in global private pension systems and the ways in which pension regulatory and supervisory authorities are managing and reacting to those trends.

In 2016, private pension assets reached their highest-ever level at over USD38 trillion in OECD countries, according to Pensions Markets in Focus. Investment losses resulting from the financial crisis have been recouped in almost all reporting OECD countries.

This review of Lithuania by the OECD Committee on Financial Markets examines Lithuania’s position with respect to core principles related to financial systems.

New Delhi, India, 8-9 November 2017. This symposium looked at how to implement effective financial education policies in a changing financial landscape with a focus on financial education in the digital age.

16 November 2017 - The OECD Guidelines on Insurer Governance provide guidance and serve as a reference point for insurers, governmental authorities, and other relevant stakeholders in OECD and non-OECD countries. The Guidelines have been revised and expanded to reflect evolving market practices and updates to international guidance following the financial crisis.

Riding the wave of technological innovation in finance, the robo-advice model has emerged as one potential solution for helping individuals manage their pensions and invest savings for retirement. This report provides an overview of the types of robo-advisors that are now available and discusses the potential benefits, risks and challenges of such platforms.

Innovative applications of technology for financial services, or FinTech, are already being used to improve communication with consumers and their engagement with their pension plans. This report provides an overview of how technology is being used to improve pension design and delivery and how regulators are managing these changes.