EUROPE – The European pension supervisory committee CEIOPS is getting closer to its sister banking and securities committees with the signing of a memorandum of understanding.

“We can announce that we intend to sign a memorandum of understanding next month to ensure that we intend to work together in an effective manner,” said Henrik Bjerre-Nielsen, chairman of the Committee of European Insurance and Occupational Supervisors.

“This initiative aims particularly at favouring an open flow of information an early identification of issues of common interest and an alignment of the work on common and relevant subjects,” he told a meeting of European finance ministers.

The other committees, part of the so-called Lamfalussy model of financial regulation, are the Committee of European Banking Supervisors (CEBS) and the Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR). They shared “pragmatic targets” Bjerre-Nielsen said.

He added: “We are fully committed to the Lamfalussy mode. It works well and we are convinced it will succeed.”

Bjerre-Nielsen noted that CEIOPS’ work on the Solvency II project for the insurance market is taking up “massive resources”. He barely mentioned occupational pensions, except to say that regulatory harmonisation in this area lags that seen in insurance.

CEIOPS’ occupational pensions committee is set to discuss a revised supervisory protocol later this month.

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