The French Assets Management Association ( AFG) has asked the French government for a cross-border IORP which would be consistent with the PEPP discussed at the European level.
In a white Paper, the French AM Association (AFG) called for the creation of a cross-border pension fund: “we strongly support the PEPP initiative and we are calling on the government to create a new product that is consistent with the PEPP with an appropriate tax treatment”. This proposal is aimed as an answer to the lack of a universal pension savings product for multinational companies with a mobile workforce and employees across Europe.
The aim of this product, largely inspired by the PEPP that is being discussed at the EU level, would be to strengthen occupational pensions in France and in particular collective company pension savings schemes.
AFG’s idea is to add a European pillar to the Collective Pension Saving Plan (PERCO) in order to allow companies to manage plans from France for all European employees. AFG wants to create a new type of IORP compliant pension vehicle which would allow the asset managers and their clients to manage defined contribution plans more effectively in different European countries in a single pension fund.
This project would require to create a vehicle compatible with EU pension fund legislation in Europe (the IORP directive), probably under the Sapin II French law.
This new product would appeal to a larger number of clients than the existing products and would be available to a broader range of individuals (self-employed, civil servants and mobile employees working in Europe). They would be free to choose how to use their retirement pot.
This proposal, from the French AM association, fits perfectly with the Pan European Personal Pension Product prepared at the European level which should provide for a harmonised legal framework. The PEPP would remove existing national barriers for businesses and facilitate the supply of PEPPs to consumers.
A similar proposal is the Pan European Pension for Researchers (RESAVER), a Pan European Pension Plan that enables mobile and non-mobile employees to remain with the same pension arrangement when moving between countries and when changing jobs.
Read the Investment and Pensions Europe article here