Pension Fund Governance: Issues and Challenges

The Iranian pension system has faced multiple challenges and significant deficits over the past years. This has made the pension system reform a top priority and improving the governance of pension funds is increasingly recognized as an important element of such reform . This paper highlights the main differences between the effectiveness of internal and external corporate governance mechanisms in corporations and pension funds . We argue that the typical external governance mechanisms that help align the interest of managers and main stakeholders , namely shareholders , in corporations , are not applicable in the context of pension funds . As a result , the governance of pension funds mostly relies on internal governance mechanisms and , in particular , the board of trustees . We offer tentative thoughts and solutions about the structure of the board of trustees and other internal governance mechanisms including transparency and information disclosure .