Matti Leppälä, secretary general of the European Federation of Retirement Provision (EFRP), said he welcomed the revised timeline and argued in favour of an in-depth analysis of the potential quantitative impact the IORP Directive could have on pension funds.
It is the first time the Commission said the revised IORP Directive would be introduced in the summer 2013", Leppälä said. "It is obviously a good thing that more time is now taken before the proposals come out as this is a sort of recognition from the Commission that a longer and narrower study is needed."
Leppälä stressed that five quantitative impact studies (QIS) were carried out before the implementation of the Solvency II framework for insurance companies – which is scheduled for January 2014 – and that similar studies should be conducted for the IORP Directive.
The Dutch Pension Federation also welcomed the revised timeline, arguing that any changes in the IORP Directive would be a "good thing". A spokesman from the federation said: "The IORP Directive in its current form represents a major source of concern for Dutch pension funds".
Dave Roberts and Mark Dowsey, both senior consultants at Towers Watson, argued that publishing the proposals for a revised IORP Directive in 2013 remained "highly optimistic" if the Commission was to take into account the postponed consultation paper on scope of the QIS. "If the QIS is carried out, as we expect, during the last part of this year into early next year, and if the first results available are not out before Q1 2013, then it is still remarkably quick to go from that position to drafting legislation in a period of a couple of months."
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