Consider, for instance, the major changes concerning credit rating systems, which play a key role in the portfolio management of pension funds in every country; or the uncertain perspectives of the investment banking industry, which provides companies and investors with such essential services as securities underwriting and trading, asset management, and M&A advice; or again the upsurge of counterparty risk on OTC derivatives, which pension fund managers have used increasingly to try to improve portfolio risk management.
It is now difficult to figure out how financial intermediaries and markets will adjust to these structural changes. More importantly, the global banking crisis that still engulfs intermediaries and markets threatens to cast a shadow on the very notion that financial markets could be a reliable source of retirement income.