Revision of Retirement Pension Provider Evaluation: "Introduction of Default Option Return Rate Assessment"

Transitioning from Non-Face-to-Face to Face-to-Face Evaluation
Expanding Disclosure of Evaluation Results to Promote Competition

The government is restructuring the evaluation of retirement pension providers to encourage efforts to improve their rate of return. A new evaluation indicator for default option returns will be established, and indicators will be consolidated and merged to create a performance-oriented evaluation system.

The Ministry of Employment and Labor and the Financial Supervisory Service held the '2025 Retirement Pension Business Briefing' on the 12th, attended by about 200 people including retirement pension providers and representatives from regional associations. The event was organized to guide key retirement pension policies for this year, explain the direction of provider supervision and inspection, and discuss current issues related to retirement pensions.

The Ministry of Employment and Labor explained at the event that while retirement pensions have experienced quantitative growth focused on accumulated funds over the past 20 years, the next 20 years should focus on qualitative growth from the subscribers' perspective. Providers were urged to focus on growth aimed at improving subscriber returns rather than competition centered on attracting accumulated funds, and to take thorough measures to protect workers' benefit rights.

The Ministry also announced the direction for restructuring the evaluation of retirement pension providers to promote efforts to improve returns. A new evaluation indicator for default option returns will be introduced, and existing indicators will be consolidated and merged to create a performance-oriented evaluation system. The evaluation method will shift from non-face-to-face to face-to-face, and the scope of disclosure of evaluation results will be expanded to promote competition among providers.

The Financial Supervisory Service requested providers to improve the practice of excessively concentrating on principal-guaranteed products and to do their best to induce long-term and diversified investments so that customers can achieve long-term returns based on the 'magic of compound interest.' They also asked providers to faithfully fulfill their 'fiduciary duty' as retirement pension trustees by re-examining work processes from the customer's perspective.

The Financial Supervisory Service plans to strengthen the role of providers in improving returns through improved comparative disclosure related to returns and costs and enhanced subscriber guidance on long-term and diversified investments. At the same time, inspections related to unfair business practices will continue to protect workers' benefit rights. They will also conduct review activities to ensure early adoption of recently introduced systems such as in-kind transfers.

The Ministry of Employment and Labor and the Financial Supervisory Service stated, "We plan to actively reflect the various opinions and suggestions discussed at this briefing in future policy formulation and supervision·and inspection tasks," adding, "we will continue to maintain active communication with the retirement pension industry to carry out field-oriented policies·and supervisory tasks."