PensionsEurope has warned that a proposal made by the Hungarian presidency of the Council of the European Union on the Financial Data Access Regulation (FIDA) would not rule occupational pensions out of its scope.

The Hungarian presidency, which is governing until the end of 2024, aims to achieve a general approach to FIDA, most likely in November.

It has been suggested that IORPs be included in the scope of FIDA in member states that do not have national pension tracking systems (PTS). However, PensionsEurope said this proposal would not “reflect on our specificities in those countries”.

“Even countries with PTS would be unable to meet the technical requirements for an exemption of scope, especially about the requirement of real-time data (as opposed to data from the last pension benefit statement as only one prominent example). These requirements are not necessary for IORPs to achieve the purpose of a PTS due to low account movements and annual actuarial calculations for instance,” the association argued.

In an additional warning, PensionsEurope said that such a clause would only apply to IORPs but not to insurance companies that are chosen exclusively by the social partner or the employer in the context of an occupational pension arrangement.

“Since the employee/member is not in the position of a ‘consumer’, these occupational pensions schemes of insurance companies should be exempt from the scope as well,” PensionsEurope stated.

In addition, PensionsEurope has also said that it is against the Swedish proposal. Although it would cover a high number of pension schemes across the EU by referring to the wording “pension schemes resulting from negotiation of collective bargaining”, the association is concerned that this terminology does not fit the realities of the occupational pension system in all the member states.

For example, it would not be the case in Germany, where workplace arrangements (Betriebsvereinbarungen) work on company level via employers and work councils.

Instead, the association is in favour of adopting option 3 for the implementation of FIDA, which would fully exclude occupational pension schemes from FIDA. PensionsEurope’s argument for not including occupational pension schemes is that they are exclusive to a group of employees defined by social partners or/and the sponsoring employers and/or national legislation.

“These are not schemes that are offered on the market and as such freely accessible to all interested customers and consumers. This position remains aligned with our last paper on FIDA which emphasizes the need to acknowledge the specificities of occupational pension schemes that are not accessible to all interested consumers as the Belgian presidency had wanted to do so in his proposal,” PensionsEurope stated.

In offering its support to option 3, PensionsEurope stated: “We completely support the latest proposal (i.e. option 3) to exclude pension rights in officially recognised occupational pension schemes, under the Solvency II and IORPII directives with an opt-in possibility. This would take account of the diverse EU occupational pension landscape by ensuring the exclusion of occupational pension schemes while preserving the ability of member states to include occupational pension schemes in the scope.

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