The European Federation for Retirement Provision (EFRP) is considering allowing direct membership for pension funds and financial institutions on a qualified basis.

While stressing that nothing had been formalised, EFRP chairman Alan Broxson said that there would probably be a proposal to discuss the matter at the next meeting of the Federation's EU committee.

Currently only national pension fund associations from EU and EFTA member states are eligible for full membership, but Broxson added that over the last two years many financial institutions and large pension funds had expressed interest in joining

He continued: Up till now we have had to say no. But a number of organisations are saying that they would like to support what the EFRP are doing and to be party to the information gathering and analysis that we do for our members. At the moment we are simply considering whether we can create a category of membership that would facilitate this."

He also pointed to the category of correspondent membership, which had facilitated countries outside the EU/EFTA boundary such as the Russian Federation and Hungary."

Topics