23 June 2016

Janwillem Bouma makes policy recommendations to make pensions work at PensionsEurope 2016 Conference

Janwillem Bouma told delegates that that PensionsEurope welcomes the significant progress made by the Dutch Presidency, the European Parliament and the European Commission in the trilogue negotiations on IORPII.

He said: “In general, PensionsEurope welcomes the direction of the IORPII discussions. Particularly, we have been pleased that the IORP II directive will not contain additional solvency capital requirements for IORPs, which could have had significant negative impacts on IORPs, sponsors and members.”

He welcomed that EIOPA has taken note of some concerns raised by PensionsEurope that there is no need for a harmonised solvency framework for IORPs. EIOPA has proposed to introduce a standardized risk assessment to value IORPs on a common framework balance sheet.

Furthermore, he highlighted that a proportionate regulatory environment that reflects the specificities of pension funds as entities which have a social purpose is needed in order to enable pension funds to reach their full potential as long-term investors in the Capital Markets Union.

He said: “I hope that the analysis that the Commission services will complete in July will result in changes to a number of pieces of EU financial legislation. The European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR) should allow for more proportionality. The negative impact that the interactions of EMIR with bank capital rules currently have on pension funds needs to be prevented as well. At present, the cumulative impact of bank capital requirements (CRDIV) and EMIR is overly burdensome for pension funds”.

Speaking at the PensionsEurope Conference 2016, Janwillem launched a PensionsEurope Paper on the Key Principles of Good Governance for Workplace Defined Contribution Pension Plans.

Press release

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