Latest on Regulation & Reform – Page 413
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News
Personal accounts are "disaster waiting to happen"
[13:00 CET 05-03] UK – Automatically enrolling all employees into "tried and tested" products such as stakeholder pensions may be a better solution for extending pension coverage than "untested and inflexible state-controlled personal accounts", a report has revealed.
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OPF warns of increased wind-ups prospect
[16:50 CET 04-03] NETHERLANDS - The government needs to speed up its plans for modernisation of the Dutch pension system, or it risks increasing the number of collective schemes moving into wind-up, according to the Foundation of Company Pensions Funds (OPF).
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TPR given power to impose mortality changes on 'imprudent' schemes
[16:30 CET 04-3] UK – A new clause in the UK's Pensions Bill will allow The Pensions Regulator (TPR) to impose its preferred, stronger mortality assumptions onto schemes and potentially increase liabilities by 9%, Punter Southall has revealed.
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Investment managers may pay for 'money guidance'
[16:50 CET 03-03] UK – Investment managers responsible for the assets of occupational pension funds should contribute to the funding of a new national system of "money guidance" expected to cost £49m (€64m) a year, an independent review has revealed.
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FeaturesCommission issues two surveys in fight for pensions portability
More artillery has arrived on the battleground where the EU is still fighting for pan-European legislation on the portability of supplementary, non-state pensions for employees. The weapons recently wheeled into place by the European Commission takes the form of two heavyweight studies. These include existing national business practices, measures of ...
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Features
Not another dagger?
The recent paper from the UK Accounting Standards Board (ASB) was described by Aon Consulting as “another dagger in the side of final salary pensions”. But when is a dagger not a dagger? Apparently, when an organisation or even an individual does something to draw attention to the increasingly unsustainable ...
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FeaturesOverdue for an overhaul
International accounting standards have served pensions accounting well, but it is time for an update, argues Andrew Lennard
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Features
A false sense of security
Nearly half of the Swedish public is labouring under a misconception about how money in their first pillar pension scheme is invested, according to a recent survey. The Premium Pensions Authority (PPM) runs the DC portion of Sweden’s first pillar provision. How the 2.5% of salary directed into it is ...
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Special ReportOff the record: Bean counters called to account
Few issues have generated so much controversy among Europe’s corporate pension schemes as the application of international accounting standards (IAS). In Switzerland, the introduction of IAS19 has led pension lawyers to re-define Pensionskassen as defined contribution (DC) rather than defined benefit (DB) schemes in an effort to escape its provisions. In the Netherlands, industry-wide schemes have argued that the involvement of a large number of corporate sponsors has made the implementation of IAS19 impossible.
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FeaturesGaps in the landscape
While the authorities hope the new OPF vehicle will attract foreign pension funds to base themselves in Belgium, the domestic second pillar is not as robust as it should be, George Coats finds
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FeaturesHands off the tiller
Belgium was without a government for the second half of last year. Did anybody notice? George Coats investigates
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News
IAPF favours SSIA over mandatory approach
[16:35 CET 29-02] IRELAND – The Irish Association of Pension Funds (IAPF) has warned the government adopting a mandatory approach to pensions would "exacerbate" the current problem of low contribution levels, and argued a type of special savings incentive account should be introduced instead.
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News
Czech faces ECJ over IORP non-compliance
[16:30 CET 29-02] CZECH REPUBLIC – The European Commission has referred the Czech Republic to the European Court of Justice for only partially implementing the IORP directive, as the Czech Republic does not provide access to occupational pensions at present.
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News
Gov't targets 'commodity' treatment of pensions
[15:15 CET 28-02] UK – The UK government has confirmed it is "urgently" looking at ways to address concerns that the buy-out market seems to be treating pensions "as just another commodity".
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PPF sets March deadline on parental guarantees
[16:30 CET 27-02] UK – Pension schemes using parental guarantees as a contingent asset could face an increased Pension Protection Fund (PPF) levy if they fail to re-certify the guarantee before the end of March, Lane Clark & Peacock (LCP) has warned.
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EC to stage pensions assets enquiry
[15:45 CET 27-02] EUROPE - The European Commission is planning to hold a “broad based enquiry” into the asset management of defined benefit pension funds, following pressure from DB pensions managers concerning a threat which would oblige them to transfer assets out of equities and into fixed-interest securities.
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Ireland to regulate 'poor' pensions admin
[15:45 CET 26-02] IRELAND – The Irish government is to start regulating third-party administrators where they carry out scheme administration on behalf of trustees in an attempt to improve 'poor' standards.
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News
'Tweaks' could improve Danish pensions - OECD
[13:15 CET 26-02] DENMARK – The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has proposed the Danish government reform make several “minor changes” to its existing pensions regime to improve the returns and potential income pensioners may receive at retirement.
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News
Trustees need to 'do better' on conflict management
[12:30 CET 26-02] UK – The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has issued a consultation on trustee guidance over possible conflicts of interest, which it expects to trigger a "marked improvement" in conflict governance.
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News
Lisbon unveils new supplementary plan
[16:50 CET 25-02] PORTUGAL - A new first pillar defined contribution scheme will be launched in Portugal on 1 March.
