The pension gender gap cannot be closed without the introduction of a pension dashboard, according to European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) chairperson, Petra Hielkema.

Speaking at EIOPA’s Annual Conference today, 21 November, in Frankfurt, Hielkema spoke about the need for measuring the data to close the pension gender gap, which she said must be done through a dashboard.

Acknowledging the upcoming European Parliament elections next year, which will also lead to a new European Commission, Hielkema detailed some of EIOPA’s wishes for what a new commission should focus on.

“Two years ago EIOPA gave its advice to the commission on building a pension dashboard and a pension tracking system and it is sitting there in Brussels. It’s difficult because if you really want a full dashboard, you need the information from labour and social in pillar one, combined with what we have in EIOPA. No matter how difficult that might seem, to governments, to policymakers… we cannot close the pension gap, raise the awareness that is needed without measuring it. So we need that data and we need it in one dashboard,” she said.

“It takes some brave steps, combining social and labour with our [data], but let’s do it, let’s be brave, we need the information.”

In addition, Hielkema spoke about how the industry is in a time of war, which includes real wars, political uncertainty, and a changing macro-economic environment but she was positive about the industry’s future.

“When I see the new horizon, I see a path and I can wonder what is behind that, and I do see to a certain extent that it is really bright, there is plenty of opportunity, there is some visibility, there is definitely responsibility. It would have been nice if there were no clouds, no storms obscuring but it is not always good weather and that is the reality.

“We’re not in tranquil times, we’re confronted with crisis almost daily, words like perma-crisis and poly-crisis are already too often used. I think here is a task for supervision, but despite all that so far, as an insurance and pension fund industry in Europe, we are riding out the storm… we’re resilient, we’re competitive, we’re sustainable, but sounds good, it needs to be better.”

“We need to talk about what is next and how we get there, how do we keep resilient and deal with all these new risks, whether they are visible or hidden,” she stated.

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