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In his opening speech at EIOPA's 2nd Annual Conference, 'EIOPA – Reflecting on the achievements and preparing for the new challenges', Bernardino referred to the White Paper on Pensions published by the European Commission in February this year, which sets out a number of initiatives for the pensions industry in the coming years. Bernardino said occupational schemes should have sufficient resources to meet their promises using a reasonable but realistic and transparent framework.
"Taking due account of the diversity of IORPs, we proposed the concept of a holistic balance sheet that will enable the consideration of the various adjustment and security mechanisms in an explicit way", he said. "The holistic balance sheet should be seen as a prudential supervisory assessment tool rather than a 'usual' balance sheet based on generally agreed accounting standards."
Bernardino said EIOPA expected to finalise the report on the QIS findings in the spring of 2013. With regards to a common third pillar in Europe, Bernardino called for an "exploration" of an EU-wide retirement savings product. "The current framework applicable to third-pillar products is very much fragmented, with a number of different vehicles being subject to different types of EU regulations", he said.