IPE: Long-term investing Green Paper a 'good start', but needs more studies

26 March 2013

The Dutch Pensions Federation has warned that the Green Paper on Long-Term Investing represents a "good start" for an "important debate", but it should not stop Brussels from conducting further quantitative impact studies for the revised IORP Directive.

Reacting to the long-awaited public consultation on how to foster long-term financing and improve financial intermediation in Europe, the federation said it agreed with the European Commission that it was necessary to evaluate the impact of prudential regulation and fair-value accounting on the investment behaviour of institutional investors such as pension funds.

However, the Dutch association stressed the need for a "careful process" – requiring additional QIS exercises – in drafting the revised IORP Directive. "Otherwise", it said, "the role played by pension funds in long-term financing projects might not materialise in the most effective manner".

The Dutch Pensions Federation also warned that pension funds were facing a number of other EU regulatory frameworks such as the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR), the financial transaction tax (FTT) and the revised Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II).

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