February 2023
21Feb

ESG: EU Regulatory Change and Its Implications

Despite the sharp change in the financial landscape over the past year and an increasingly challenging macroeconomic climate, investment focused on environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors is set to grow. Global ESG assets may reach $50 trillion by 2025, one-third of the projected total assets under management globally, from $35 trillion in 2020. [1] Climate-related challenges, in particular, have come to the fore given the experience of unprecedented heat waves in parts of Europe, forest fires in the...

February 21, 2023
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17Feb

Gig economy report 2022

By Pascale Moreau The balance between flexibility, autonomous working and social protection has been a long time discussion within the gig economy and its complexities have kept legislators busy in recent years. As a result, the draft European Directive on Platform work is one of the most discussed topics of the year. It introduces various criteria which - if applicable - could result in a legal presumption of employment for the worker. In this year’s PwC Legal’s 2022 Gig Economy...

February 17, 2023
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17Feb

EIOPA, Unit-linked Insurance and Polish Product Intervention: A Silent Regulatory Revolution?

By Lucie Škapová When the Polish financial market supervisor, Komisja Nadzoru Finansowego (KNF), notified its intention to prohibit certain unit-linked insurance products marketed in Poland, it created an unprecedented situation: for the first time, a financial market supervisor decided to trigger Chapter III of the PRIIPs Regulation and adopt product intervention measures in the insurance sector. If adopted, these measures would regulate not only the investment strategies of unit-linked insurance products offered in Poland but also their cost structure and...

February 17, 2023
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09Feb

Eight funds breached EU sustainability rules, says Danish watchdog

Denmark's financial watchdog has ordered the companies behind eight sustainability funds to take remedial action after finding they had violated European Union disclosure rules on such investments. The watchdog said failings included a lack of clear, adequate and comprehensive information on the funds' sustainable investment objectives. Financial regulators across Europe have increased scrutiny of how fund managers are meeting reporting requirements of the EU's Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR), which aims to prevent so-called greenwashing of environmental or sustainability credentials. "It is...

February 9, 2023
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January 2023
06Jan

Occupational pensions statistics

By European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority EIOPA provides statistical data on how institutions for occupational retirement provision in the EU and the European Economic Area (EEA) perform. The statistics contain aggregated country level information about the basic information, balance sheet, asset exposures, expenses, member data, contributions, benefits, and transfers. Data refers to the latest information available for each reference date. Our statistics are based on quantitative pensions data reports. Occupational pension institutions in the EU and the European Economic Area (EEA)...

January 6, 2023
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December 2022

Conversion from DB to DC: The EU Pension Custodian
20Dec

Conversion from DB to DC: The EU Pension Custodian

By: Hans van Meerten Worldwide we see a move to DC schemes. Most – if not all countries – choose the operate DB next to DC. However, in The Netherlands, the legislator choose for so-called conversion: transforming 'old' DB- to 'new' DC. In 2011, the Dutch legislator introduced the so called 'Pension Custodian'. It could only be used for the Dutch 2nd pillar DC IORP, the PPI. This Pension Custodion should *not* be confused with the IORP II Custodian. However, with the implementation of...

December 20, 2022
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14Dec

Climate change could cost pension funds billions, EU watchdog says

Pension funds across the European Union would lose billions of euros from their investments in polluting industries without action to mitigate the impact of climate change, the bloc's first stress test of its kind showed on Tuesday. The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) said its test covered 187 pension funds from 18 EU member states with more than 1.98 trillion euros ($2 trillion) of assets, or 65% of assets in defined benefit and defined contribution schemes. The funds were...

December 14, 2022
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14Dec

Nine EU countries need pension reform

Nine EU countries have not explicitly committed to pension reforms in their recovery and resilience plans despite Commission recommendations on the matter from the 2019 European Semester, according to Commission documents and declarations made to EURACTIV. In 2019, during the European Semester, 17 EU countries received recommendations on the “long-term sustainability of public finances”, and 15 were urged to specifically reform their pension systems. Some of them were again asked to pursue reforms of the retirement system with the Next...

December 14, 2022
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06Dec

Europe needs to step up on ‘global clean tech race,’ EU president says

The European Commission should help member countries and European Union companies compete with the U.S. on green energy initiatives, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Sunday. "We are now confronted with an intensifying global clean tech race," Ms. Von der Leyen said in a speech at the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium. The United States' Inflation Reduction Act, with massive subsidies for clean energy, "should make us reflect on how we can improve our state-aid frameworks, and adapt...

December 6, 2022
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November 2022
23Nov

European regulator drafts guidelines for ESG fund names

European Securities and Markets Authority, the European Union's securities regulator, is seeking input as it works on rules for funds calling themselves sustainable or ESG. In a consultation paper published Nov. 18, ESMA offered draft guidelines for such funds, saying the names "should be supported in a material way by evidence of sustainability characteristics or objectives that are reflected fairly and consistently in the fund's investment objectives and policy." The proposal said those names "are a powerful marketing tool." Read also...

November 23, 2022
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