15 October 2009

CEIOPS publishes an overview of legal requirements under the IORP Directive

The overview is based on a selection of topics relating to relevant national, social and labour law provisions, investment restrictions and information requirements. The information is a snapshot of the situation as at the last quarter of 2009.

Under Directive 2003/41/EC on the activities and supervision of institutions for occupational retirement provision, (the IORP Directive), cross-border occupational pension institutions operating in a host Member State (Guest IORPs) must comply with the requirements of social and labour laws relevant to occupational pensions of the host Member State.  They must also comply with any host Member State legislation drawn up under Articles 18(7) and 20(7) of the Directive. The Directive does not specify what comprises relevant social and labour law, although it does give some examples. Consequently, there are differences among Member States concerning what it constitutes.

 

·         Under Article 18(7) of the Directive, the competent authorities of each Member State may require that certain rules regarding investment are applied to an institution in the host Member State. These rules only apply to those assets of the institution corresponding to activities undertaken in the host Member State, and they only apply if the same or stricter rules also apply to institutions located in the host Member State.

·         Under Article 20(7) of the Directive, IORPs are subject to any information requirements imposed by the competent authorities of the host Member State on institutions located within that Member State, in respect of the corresponding member.

 

This information, now made publicly available on the CEIOPS website, is expected to be of interest or use to:

 

·         Member States – to understand how home country supervision of cross-border IORPs will interact with host country legal requirements.

·         those considering the establishment of cross-border IORPs – to get an overview of their obligations in the jurisdiction in which they intend to operate.

 

This information is a snapshot of the situation as at the last quarter of 2009 and only covers the topics selected for the questionnaire. Additionally, further topics that are not covered by the questionnaire might be constituted as part of a host Member State’s social and labour law relevant to occupational pensions under which a pension scheme sponsored by an undertaking in the host Member State is to be operated.

 

 

Explanatory note

 

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