Jetta Klijnsma, state secretary for the Dutch Ministry of Social Affairs, has announced that the new cross-border pensions vehicle API is to replace the "multi-scheme".
Klijnsma said the API would be able to provide more than one defined benefit (DB) arrangement with mandatory ring-fenced assets. She said the API was in fact an elaborated version of the 'multi-scheme' and had been modelled partly on the experience gained from the PPI defined contribution cross-border vehicle. According to the proposal within the consultation, both company pension funds and non-mandatory industry-wide schemes can act as an API. However, Klijnsma said mandatory industry-wide schemes and occupational pension funds should be barred from operating as APIs, as they must charge an average premium and always act a single financial unit, following the "solidarity principle".
According to the Dutch Cabinet, employers that have been exempt from participating in a mandatory industry-wide scheme should also be allowed to place their pension plan with a company scheme run as an API. The same would apply for employers with their pension plans currently carried out by an insurer. In the Cabinet's proposal, the API can choose between a board with equal representation and an independent board.
The Cabinet further suggested placing internal supervision at an API with the independent supervisory board or the non-executive members of a one-tier board, rather than with a visitation committee.
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