EUROPE – The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) has once again called for further quantitative impact studies (QIS) as part of the IORP Directive review, arguing that the first exercise revealed "inconsistencies".
Speaking at the Handelsblatt occupational pension conference in Berlin today, EIOPA chairman Gabriel Bernardino said he was not yet in a position to provide details on the outcomes of the QIS exercise, but conceded it was fair to assume there would be "considerable variation" in the results.
He added that the inconsistencies encountered during the first QIS – which ran until 17 December last year – needed to be "carefully" mapped, so that they could be improved on in future exercises.
"I think that the next exercise can be considerably less extensive with regard to the number of scenarios being tested and provide better guidance and more simplifications," Bernardino said.
"A less elaborate QIS will not only allow for a greater focus on quality – instead of quantity –but also for a greater number of IORPs to participate."
IORPs participating in the first QIS had to value liabilities on a market-consistent basis, calculate a so-called level B best estimate of technical provisions – based on the expected return on assets – as well as value sponsor support.
Bernardino also confirmed in his speech that the authority was currently working on a set of preliminary results to be sent to the European Commission by the end of the month, and that it would publish its final report by the end of June.
EIOPA had previously stressed that the adoption of the holistic balance sheet would require further QIS exercises to be conducted. Sending its technical specifications to the Commission ahead of the launch of the QIS in October last year, it said it had already identified "a number of areas" it hoped to examine further.
Although the pension industry has welcomed this approach, some experts have argued that the differing approaches of EIOPA and the Commission reveal "tensions".
In the UK, the National Association of Pensions Funds (NAPF) argued that the authority was proceeding at a "completely different" pace from the Commission.
James Walsh, senior policy adviser at the NAPF, told IPE that, if EIOPA were to launch further rounds of QIS exercises, there would be no way that the Commission could draft any Directive in the summer 2013 as they previously stated.
"This marks a real tension between EIOPA and the Commission," he said.
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