Money managers and consultants say that voluntary pan-European personal pension products could be dead on arrival with the watchdog European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority taking a tougher approach to its supervision.

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The European Commission launched PEPPs in 2019 to simplify retirement saving for self-employed and mobile workers seeking employment across the European Union. Through a portable cross-border plan design for individuals, a PEPP was developed to help grow pan-European workplace defined contribution assets in Europe as an alternative to occupational multiemployer cross-border plans, which were suffering from low demand because they failed to attract much interest from corporate employers.

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Aiming to increase the number of Europeans who are enrolled into personal occupational savings plans above the current 27%, industry observers welcomed a PEPP as a bridge between personal and workplace retirement plans that can help with complexities related to local laws.

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Money managers, insurance companies, banks, occupational pension funds and investment firms are eligible to offer one savings vehicle in all European markets under the current PEPP rules. Under these rules, savers would be defaulted into a safe investment option with a fee capped at 1% but could choose different risk-return investment options and a decumulation strategy.

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