ROMANIA - Parliament has approved the membership of the pensions regulator, the Surveillance Commission of Private Pensions (CSSPP), and confirmed acting council president Mircea Oancea in his position as its head.

The move follows the signature earlier this month by Romanian president Traian Basescu of legislation to introduce third pillar voluntary private pension schemes.

Legislation to introduce second pillar schemes has been delayed but is expected to be presented to parliament in the coming months.

According to Oancea, the commission will begin the licensing procedure for the pensions sector companies to manage the pension funds in September.

This will be a three-stage process: first granting the licenses for the new companies, then granting the operating license for the management of the pension funds and finally licensing the pension schemes, he said.

The vice-president of the commission is Ion Giurascu, who has been closely linked to the pensions reform effort in both the labour ministry and the National House of Pensions. Oancea was formerly deputy director at financial investment company SIF Muntenia

The president and vice-president are full time employees of the commission, and will serve a six-year term. They can serve a maximum of two terms.

The three other members of the commission – Vlad Soare, Doru Claudian Frunzulica and Stefan Prigoreanu – come from the financial community. They will serve for five years.

The commission will hold its first meeting in 10 days and its agenda will include approving a final form for its internal regulations and procedures, Oancea said.

Its next project will be to publish the first draft of the norms to implement the third pillar law on the commission’s website (www.csspp.ro) and to invite responses to them.

To that end the commission will establish a working group with professional bodies the Association for Private Pensions in Romania (APAPR) and the National Union for the Organisation for Collective Investment (UNOPC), Oancea added.

This will issue the final form of the norms that will be approved by the commission.

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