In 2018, 17 of the 36 OECD countries had some form of mandatory or quasi-mandatory funded and private pension system in place, ensuring a high coverage of the working-age population. In Finland and Switzerland, occupational pensions are mandatory and cover more than 70% of the working-age population: employers must operate a scheme and contribution rates are set by the government. Other occupational pension systems can be classified as quasi-mandatory: through industry-wide or nation-wide collective bargaining agreements, employers establish schemes that employees must join. As not all sectors may be covered by such agreements, these systems are not classified as mandatory (e.g. Denmark, the Netherlands, and Sweden). In these countries, the coverage is close to the one in countries with mandatory systems. By contrast, in Turkey, participation in a plan is mandatory only for certain employees (e.g. OYAK for military personnel in Turkey), accounting for the relatively low proportion of people in a mandatory plan.

Regulation usually defines a (minimum) contribution rate for mandatory and auto-enrolment plans. The responsibility to pay the contributions may fall on the employees (e.g. in Chile), on the employers (e.g. in Australia, Norway) or on both (e.g. in Estonia, Iceland, Switzerland). This obligation may only apply to certain employees or under certain conditions (e.g. mandatory employer contributions only for employees earning at least AUD 450 a month in Australia). Contributions may be topped by state matching contributions (e.g. New Zealand) or subsidies (e.g. social quota in Mexico).

Assets in funded and private pension plans amounted to more than USD 42 trillion in 2018 in the OECD area. The United States had the largest pension market within the OECD member countries with assets worth USD 27.5 trillion, representing 64.8% of the OECD total. Other OECD countries with large pension systems include the United Kingdom with assets worth USD 2.8 trillion and a 6.6% share of OECD pension market in 2018; Canada, USD 2.5 trillion and 5.9%; Australia, USD 1.9 trillion and 4.5%; the Netherlands, USD 1.5 trillion, 3.6%; and Japan, USD 1.4 trillion and 3.3%.

In most countries, bonds and equities remained the two main asset classes in which pension assets were invested in 2018, accounting for more than half of investments in 32 out of 36 OECD countries, and in the five reporting non-OECD G20 jurisdictions. The combined proportion of bonds and equities was the highest (relatively to the size of the portfolio) in Chile (99.4%), Estonia (96.7%) and Mexico (96.3%). Pension assets may have been invested in these instruments either directly or indirectly through collective investment schemes. For some countries, the look-though of the investments of collective investment schemes was not available, such as for Sweden (in which 63.4% of assets were invested) and the United Kingdom (26.6% of investments). Only the direct investments in bonds and equities were known for these countries (e.g. 30% for Sweden, 39.2% for the United Kingdom). The overall exposure of pension assets to fixed income securities and equities was probably higher in these countries.

The year 2018 was the worst on record (in terms of financial performance) for funded and private pension plans in a number of reporting countries since the 2008 financial crisis.

The pension landscape includes various types of funded and private pension plans worldwide. For example, pension plans may be accessed through employment or by individuals directly without any involvement of their employers. When plans are accessed through employment and were established by employers or social partners on behalf of their employees, these plans are considered as occupational. The OECD taxonomy classifies plans as personal when access to these plans does not have to be linked to an employment relationship and these plans are established directly by a pension fund or a financial institution acting as pension provider without any intervention of employers.

Pension providers charge fees to their members to cover their operating expenses. Operating expenses include marketing the plan to potential participants, collecting contributions, sending contributions to investment fund managers, keeping records of accounts, sending reports to participants, investing the assets, converting account balances to annuities, and paying annuities.

Providers of occupational defined benefit (DB) plans have faced challenges from low and falling interest rates over the last decade. A significant part of OECD pension assets is still in DB plans and other plans that offer return or benefit guarantees. Low and falling interest rates increase the values of liabilities of the providers of benefit promises, which depend on a discount rate generally based on long-term government bond yields, and lower the amount of assets accumulated as fixed income securities (including long-term government bonds) represent an important part of pension providers' portfolios.