Regulating South Africa’s retirement funds : the case for clearer objectives

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Authors

Rusconi, Rob

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Juta Law

Abstract

The rationale for the regulation of participants in financial markets, like retirement funds, is sound. It would be strengthened, however, by a clear statement of the objectives of such regulation. In this article the position is taken that the objectives underpinning the regulation of South African privately-managed retirement funds should be enhanced. It presents this argument with reference to international principles concerning systems of old-age provision, and to the examples of regulations in other jurisdictions. It recommends a set of practical regulatory objectives in the pursuit of efficiency, sustainability, coverage, adequacy and security of provision for old age.

Description

The research reported in this article is intended to contribute to completion of a PhD degree at the University of Pretoria. Some of the work was carried out as part of an MSc thesis completed in 2019 at the University of Pretoria. I am grateful for the guidance provided by supervisors Prof Conrad Beyers and Prof Corlia van Heerden. I acknowledge as well comments received from delegates to the 2020 Convention of the Actuarial Society of South Africa, to which this paper was presented, and from pre-presentation reviewer, Costa Economou.

Keywords

Retirement funds, Financial markets, Regulatory objectives, Social protection, Government policy

Sustainable Development Goals

Citation

Rusconi, R., 2021, ‘Regulating South Africa’s retirement funds: The case for clearer objectives’, South African Journal of Economic and Management Sciences 24(1), a3943. https://DOI.org/10.4102/sajems.v24i1.3943.