Pension assets across the largest pensions’ markets increased 11% in 2020, according to the Global Pensions Assets Study 2021 by Willis Towers Watson. Asia Pacific pension funds beat their peers in asset value growth in 2019, according to a report on the world’s top 300 pension funds by the Thinking Ahead Institute. Assets under management (AUM) of the top 20 pension funds grew 8.1% year-on-year in 2019, led by a 10.6% growth in the assets of Asia Pacific funds.

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However, the Mercer CFA Institute Global Pension Index Report 2020 showed that Asia’s pension funds slightly lagged their global peers in performance last year. Indeed, many will face further challenges as the market impact of Covid-19 will likely delay urgently needed reforms. This will further stress Asia’s retirement fund systems, which are already tackling aging demographics and a low-growth, low-interest rate economic environment that has hindered some retirement schemes from funding future liabilities.

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Despite these challenges, the Government Pension Investment Fund of Japan (GPIF) remains the world’s largest pension fund, with JPY177.7 trillion (USD1.72 trillion) in AUM (as of December 2020). It is more than 40% bigger than the second-largest fund, the Government Pension Fund of Norway.

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