The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan are among the 20 largest pension funds in the world in terms of assets under management, according to a new report from the Thinking Ahead Institute.
The not-for-profit investment research organization’s report, which was based on figures from the end of 2020, ranked both the top 20 and the top 300 pension plans in terms of AUM.
The CPPIB, which directly manages about US$390.5 billion, ranked 8th on the list. The Ontario Teachers’, which manages US$173.74 billion, placed 20th. The top spot on the list went to Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund, with US$1,719.99 in AUM. The Government Pension Fund of Norway placed second with US$1,305.92 in AUM.
Read: CPPIB assets crosses $500BN mark: report
Another 16 Canadian pension funds made the list of the 300 largest pensions. In terms of total national representation, Canada placed third, behind the U.S. and the U.K., which had 138 and 23 ranked pensions, respectively.
Notably, 73.7 per cent of the assets held by North American pension plans included on the larger list were from defined benefit plans. While DB plans also maintained a smaller majority of the assets held by pensions in Europe and Asia Pacific, this wasn’t the case for much of the world. Defined contribution plans managed 75.2 per cent of assets based in Africa, Latin America and the Middle East.
In total, the top 20 pensions were found to directly manage about US$22.79 trillion, up about 14.6 per cent from the end of 2019. The top 300 pensions had a combined AUM of US$54.52 trillion, up 11 per cent from the previous year.