These include a considerable restructuring of contribution or benefit rules, increasing the effective retirement age and linking pension benefits in an actuarially fair way to life expectancy. In some cases, where these types of reforms have proved to be insufficient, more systemic reforms have been adopted, changing the financing structure of pension provision with increased reliance upon funded pension arrangements.
In my remarks today, I want to focus in particular on these asset purchase programmes and explain a novel element to our communication that came with their announcement – that is, our emphasis on the impact of these measures on the ECB’s balance sheet.