Europe's occupational pensions regulator and central bank are seeking industry input on standardization of pension data reporting.
The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority issued a public consultation Wednesday on a single reporting framework that aims to transfer the burden of regular reporting onto national supervisory authorities.
The initiative aims to increase efficiency and strengthen the monitoring and analysis of the European occupational pensions sector through a single framework, an EIOPA news release said. The authority proposed one comprehensive package of reporting templates aligned with similar European and international reporting standards, which will be used by EU member state national supervisors.
"There is a need for better, comparable and relevant information regarding occupational pensions in Europe which is decisive to take informed policy decisions," Gabriel Bernardino, EIOPA chairman, said in the release.
The European Central Bank also launched a public consultation Wednesday asking for industry input on draft regulations introducing statistical reporting requirements for pension funds.
The regulation aims to increase transparency of the €2.5 trillion ($2.9 trillion) eurozone pension fund sector. The bank wants to generate better quality, more granular and comparable statistical data on the sector to better understand its role in monetary policy as well as risks associated with pension obligations.
"Statistical reporting and collecting information always contain costs for pension funds, so it should be very carefully considered which information is really relevant and needed, and how often they should be reported," said Matti Leppala, secretary general and CEO of PensionsEurope, commenting on both proposals in an email.
"Pension funds should not be required to pay high fees to third parties in order to be able to provide the required information to the ECB and EIOPA," Mr. Leppala said.
