The Global Pension Transparency Benchmark (GPTB) was launched in 2021 in collaboration with Top1000funds.com, with one clear goal: to elevate the standard of public reporting among the world’s largest pension funds. By evaluating disclosures across cost, performance, governance, and responsible investing, GPTB helped bring transparency and accountability to the forefront of the global conversation.
The results speak volumes:
- 75% of funds improved their total transparency scores.
- All funds improved their score by ~11 points on average.
- 15 funds in 2024 outperformed the top fund from 2021.
- Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global earned a perfect score of 100—a historic first.
These results speak not only to progress but to leadership. Pension funds around the world took meaningful steps to increase transparency, enhance trust, and improve reporting practices. GPTB played a key role in advancing that progress, and we’re proud to have helped catalyze the change.
With that in mind, we’re announcing that GPTB will conclude with its final edition in November 2025.
Why we’re evolving: the shift to Global Reporting Principles (GRP):
GPTB spotlighted public disclosure excellence, but CEM’s experience over 30 years shows that meaningful transparency also depends on internal processes and private reporting. For this reason, we’re transitioning to the Global Reporting Principles —a more comprehensive and actionable framework for cost and performance reporting.
Launched in 2022 and refined in 2024, GRP integrates best practices from around the world. Its creation was guided by a global advisory board. It evaluates cost and performance reporting based on materials provided directly to CEM, some of which are not available in the public domain. GRP spans investments and pension administration for both DB and DC plans. It is designed to evolve and guide ongoing industry improvement.
You can access the GRP implementation timeline to see how the framework will continue to grow in scope and rigour over the coming years.
Looking ahead- what this means for you:
- GPTB’s final edition will be published in November 2025, covering 15 countries and 75 funds.
- Funds interested in continuing to measure their progress against the GPTB rubric can partner with CEM on an individualized basis.
- All CEM clients will now receive a GRP scorecard; they will be in beta form this year and will only be disclosed with funds on a one-on-one basis.
This shift reflects our commitment to delivering objective, actionable benchmarking and empowering clients to maximize value for investments and pension administration alike.
We thank Top1000funds.com for their strategic partnership, the many pension funds that embraced the challenge of enhanced transparency, and our GPTB Advisory Board—Keith Ambachtsheer, Lorelei Graye, Angelique Laskewitz, Neil Murphy, Fiona Dunsire, and David Atkin—for their guidance and vision.
Thank you to all the participants for your partnership in advancing transparency. We look forward to embarking on this next chapter together.
Turning to a few more items I’d love to highlight in this month’s issue of Peer Intelligence:
Thanks, as always, for reading.
Rashay Jethalal
CEO, CEM Benchmarking
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