GCC Institutional Investors III - Pension Funds

Executive Summary

What is this report about?
Pension funds are the second largest category of institutional investors in the GCC region with over USD 380Bn worth of Assets under Management after Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs). This report focuses on the development and evolution of pension funds in the region since their inception. In addition to this, the report covers other areas of pension fund management such as their asset composition, pension eligibility, key growth drivers, and analyses the key challenges that are currently facing the GCC pension funds. We conclude the report with our policy recommendations for the pension funds.

Who will benefit and why?
The report will benefit insurance companies, pension funds, investors, brokerages and academicians in the finance domain. This report would help these entities to gain in-depth understanding about the landscape of pension funds in GCC.

How exhaustive is this report?
The objective of this report is to find out the status of pension funds and the impact of lower oil prices on it. We have looked at the current replacement rates of pension funds, the higher average fertility, the impact of longevity of the population, mandate of pension funds, their exposure to local stock markets, sustainability of funds and forecast the current and future GCC pension fund assets. This report covers up the major growth drivers and challenges in detail and includes key statistics such as the GCC life expectancy, the demographic dividend, average fertility rate and their sustainability in the long term. We also cover the challenges of continuing the Äö√Ñ√≤Defined BenefitÄö√Ñ√¥ pension plans as against Äö√Ñ√≤Defined ContributionÄö√Ñ√¥ plans.