The Swiss Occupational Pension System: A Governance View

Abstract

This paper describes the current Swiss occupational pension system with a focus on its governance aspects by emphasizing on the minimum guarantees established by the law, the governance-related requirements, and the most recent supervision framework. It documents in details how the various and different Swiss pension funds are organised and identify six key structure characteristics to classify them. The major distinction with other country’s pension systems is that pure defined-contributions plans do not exist in Switzerland. Finally, the paper highlights the pending trust issue of Swiss people and its potential threat to the present pension system.