Pension superpowers

The term pension superpowers (or "pension powers") was coined by Nicolas Firzli, executive director of the World Pensions Conference and the Hon. Nick Sherry, former pensions minister of Australia, who argue that:

At a time when government spending faces unprecedented limitations (fiscal austerity, debt crises, end of quantitative easing) and traditional sources of long-term capital such as banks (‘financial producers’) are constrained by draconian regulations (Basel solvency rules), institutional asset owners i.e. large pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and endowments have become the main source of capital in many countries. And their “share of voice” is set to rise further in the coming years: pension funds are now, by far, the world’s preeminent asset owners, with more than $ 55 trillions in combined assets. For perspective, this amount represents practically 90% of the overall GDP of all OECD countries put together. The largest pension funds are found in the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, the Netherlands, the UK and Scandinavia (‘pension superpowers’).
— Firzli, Sherry et al.,, "The New Wealth of Nations: Pension Superpowers, Private Market Assets and GDP Growth", Institutional Investment Research (Nov./Dec. 2025)

Further reading