Ultra-low global interest rates are playing havoc with retirement income plans, Reserve Bank governor Glenn Stevens says.

Speaking in New York at an investment conference and making clear that his comments were "international in focus" rather than carrying any particular message about Australia, Mr Stevens said ultra-low interest rates was creating "a big problem for savers".

"Here we are not talking about short-term trends. When everyone wants to save, the return to doing so will fall – that's economics," he said. "The issue is when long rates are very low for a long time. In such a world, the whole set of assumptions embodied in retirement income plans will be called into question."

"Increasingly, we hear commentary about the difficulty – or impossibility – of defined-benefit pension plans making good on their promises with long-term rates of return so low. The fact that accounting rules and regulations now strongly incentivise trustees to hold bonds – at the lowest rates of return in human history – only exacerbates the problem."