On Wednesday 26 July, the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) and the European Central Bank (ECB) launched two public consultations on the statistical reporting requirements for pension funds.
With nearly €50 million citizens affiliated to a pension fund, representing total assets in the region of €2.5 billion, the sector is one of the largest and most dynamic investors on the global capital markets. However, current gaps in terms of available data and a lack of comparability between countries make an overall understanding of the sector's role in the transmission mechanism of monetary policy difficult, they state in a press release.
EIOPA's consultation, which will run until 27 October, covers its proposal to establish a single framework harmonising the reporting requirements on pension funds that are the responsibility of the national supervisory authorities. This single framework contains a raft of information report templates that align the European and international reporting standards of EIOPA, the ECB, Eurostat and the OECD.
The ECB's consultation, which will run until 29 September and is accompanied by a teleconference on 21 September, deals with draft rules aiming to expand the collection of data whilst reinforcing the level of harmonisation and transparency. It also defines a harmonised statistical population and will add data on portfolio assets and transactions broken down by country, economic sector and type of pension scheme.
Working closely together, the ultimate aim of EIOPA and the ECB with these two initiatives is to minimise the administrative and financial burden of reporting requirements on the pensions industry.
The organisation PensionsEurope, which notified the ECB last year of its view that reporting requirements are excessively cumbersome, has welcomed these two initiatives. Its Secretary General, Matti Leppälä, nonetheless stressed that it should be “very carefully considered which information is really relevant and needed, and how often it should be reported”.
Interested parties are invited to submit their comments on the two proposals, using the following addresses: http://bit.ly/2v8vJqS (EIOPA) and http://bit.ly/2uxEMQx (ECB). (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)