We could use pension funds in poor countries to get people housing loans without them ever having to risk their actual retirement money.
SSRN · March 18, 2026 · 6178021
The Takeaway
In many countries, people with steady jobs can't get house loans because they work in the 'informal' economy with no credit score. This paper proposes using locked retirement accounts as a digital 'signal' of trust that guarantees a loan to a bank without the money ever leaving the account, turning 'dead' savings into active credit.
From the abstract
In economies characterized by high levels of labor informality and limited access to formal financial services, large segments of the population remain excluded from long-term credit markets-particularly housing finance-despite demonstrating sustained saving capacity. Traditional pension systems and private retirement products are ill-suited to address this exclusion, as they are primarily designed for income replacement in old age rather than for transforming accumulated savings into usable cre