All Notes from Brussels articles – Page 5
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Opinion Pieces
MEPS rush green paper follow-up
Substantial indications of the direction Brussels is likely to take on pension policy are emerging surprisingly early as a follow-up to the Commission’s policy paper of last July.
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Opinion Pieces
Language barriers
Pensions terminology is a confusing mishmash and needs to be simplified. It is causing problems not just for legislators but for all those who are pushing towards comparability in the finance and pensions industries.
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Opinion Pieces
Deficits in focus
The EU has now made a significant concession to accommodate the demands made by eight CEE member states and Sweden in August last year for the incorporation of future pension funding shortfalls into national annual budget statistics. Their governments claimed current rules effectively punish them for having made reforms to their pension systems that involved channelling some contributions away from the state system and into private funds.
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Opinion Pieces
EIOPA: Mixed feelings
The new European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) opens its doors in 2011 with the prospect of greatly increased powers and a fivefold increase in staff in due course. EIOPA replaces the existing Committee of European Insurance and Occupational Pension (CEIOPS), which is one of the three ‘level three’ ...
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Opinion Pieces
IAS19 volatility danger
Perhaps unsurprisingly, pension fund representative bodies have registered their objection to the International Accounting Standards Board’s (IASB) fair value proposals for defined benefit (DB) pension accounting. There is also backing from two major US organisations and a European one, plus general support by a second European body.
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Opinion Pieces
The Commission hides its teeth
The authors of the European Commission’s policy paper, ‘Towards Adequate, Sustainable and Safe European Pension Systems’, are clearly aware that solving Europe’s pension challenge is a formidable task. Not only are there the oft-cited demographic problems and injustices to workers who move across national boundaries, but there is also the fragmented nature of member states’ legislative frameworks to consider.
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Opinion Pieces
Derivatives
Proposals for legislative measures on uncovered, or naked, short selling of securities and the trade in derivatives – two crucial areas in the EU’s wholesale upgrade of financial legislation post-financial crisis – are open to response from interested parties until 10 July.
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Opinion Pieces
Worse than it looks
The forthcoming loss of Jörgen Holmquist, director general, and David Wright, deputy director-general, two of the most senior and experienced officials from the European Commission’s division responsible for legislation for the banking, insurance, free movement of capital, pensions and capital reserves sectors is bad enough. But accusations that there is a shortage of personnel preparing a “crazy number of legislative initiatives” make the losses worse in this time of crisis.
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Opinion Pieces
IORPs back on agenda
A planned wide-ranging green paper on the state of pensions in the EU is causing anxiety in the industry. The ‘holistic’ approach of the European Commission policy paper – due to be presented in the summer – could throw into question the current ceasefire over the solvency issue for the ...
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Opinion Pieces
Boost to derivatives legislation
Flesh is being added to the bones of the proposed regulation to cover legislation of the vast derivatives markets in the EU, and the European Parliament’s EP Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee (ECON) is generally welcoming of the tough stance put forward by its co-ordinating MEP.
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Opinion Pieces
Capital is not a panacea
Brussels, the Basel Committee, and other regulators striving to increase the minimum reserves of the banks have apparently got it wrong. Regulators wanting to reduce the risk of a further financial and economic crisis should concentrate their efforts somewhere else, according to the European Banking Federation (EBF).
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Opinion Pieces
EFRP sets out its stall
The European Federation for Retirement Provision (EFRP) has called for a more logical, thought-out and co-ordinated approach to pensions policy in the European Union in its strategy paper, “Beyond the crisis: Workplace Pensions”.
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Opinion Pieces
A year of execution
The year ahead in Brussels will be one of implementing measures to tighten financial legislation. But will the financial services regulatory programme align with the plans of the G20, or be diluted under pressure from one lobby after another? Whatever the outcome, no-one should expect a bump-free ride.
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Opinion Pieces
AIFM Directive delayed
Delayed scheduling in Brussels of the Alternative Investment Fund Directive — by about six months — might be bringing smiles to the faces of the anti-reform lobby. They would not mind at all that the Directive’s final clearance, through a European Parliament plenary session, is now estimated for June or ...
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Opinion Pieces
WMD under fire
Brussels is set to regulate the over-the-counter derivatives market, but it could still be some time, perhaps years, before the European Commission achieves implementation of any legislative steps across the member states.
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Opinion Pieces
AIFM: "Blood and guts"
The European Commission’s proposals for its Alternative Investment Fund Managers (AIFM) directive faces a tough time as it progresses through the European Parliament, and there could be blood and guts flying during hearings in the Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) committee.
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Opinion Pieces
A golden age
“Dealing with the impact of an ageing population in the EU,” a communication from the European Commission, kicks off with the joyful view that: “For the first time in history, the vast majority of Europe’s citizens are able to lead active, healthy and participative lives well into old age.”
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Opinion Pieces
Solvency II
The European Commission called representatives of the European pensions and insurance industry and member state officials to a public hearing in May to thrash out a harmonisation of solvency rules for cross-border company pension schemes (IORPs). But most attendees were not receptive.
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Opinion Pieces
Quo vadis IORP?
What is the future for Europe’s Institutions for Occupational Retirement Provision (IORP) directive?
