News

VUZF and VUZF Lab organized the second international conference on PEPP (Pan-European Personal Pension Product)

PEPP has all the preconditions  to be an attractive product for the savers and at the same time to be interesting to be developed and provided by financial institutions –  suppliers, it was agreed with the participants at the in the second international conference „PEPP – Regulation and technical standards towards market realization ”, held on 29-30 October in Sofia . The conference was organized by the Higher School of Insurance and Finance (VUZF University) and its’ Laboratory for applied scientific research – VUZF Lab and is held under the patronage of Mr. Boyko Atanasov, Chair of the Financial Supervision Commission (FSC). The event is the second international conference, organized by VUZF on the PEPP issues, after the one held in May 2018 within the framework of the Bulgarian EU Council presidency.

Participation at the conference took representatives of the 44th National Assembly of Republic of Bulgaria, Ministry of Finance, Financial Supervision Commission, leading experts from the Association of the Bulgarian Insurers, Bulgarian Association of Supplementary Pension Security Companies (BASPSC), managing companies , financiers, economists , experts and academics from whole of Europe.

The conference was officially opened by Prof. Dr. Grigorii Vazov, Rector of VUZF University, and Mr. Boiko Atanasov, Chair of the Financial Supervision Commission.

Keynote presentation were made by Sandra Hack, Principal Expert on Financial Stability, EIOPA, Matti Leppala, Secretary General, PensionsEurope, Prof. Bernard Delbecque, Senior Director, Economics & Research, European Fund and Asset Management Association, Nicolas Jeanmart, Head of personal & general insurance, Insurance Europe, Martin Ramharter, Senior Legal and Policy Advisor, Federal Ministry of Finance, Austria, Prof. Claudio Tebaldi, Università Commerciale L.Bocconi, Milano, Prof. Hans van Meerten, The University of Utrecht, pro.f Pierpaolo Marano, Prof. Michele Siri and many other prominent experts with extensive practical and scientific experience in the area.
Among them were also leading academics of VUZF University – Assoc . Prof. Dr. Stanislav Dimitrov, Head of Program Department „Insurance and Pensions“ at VUZF Lab, Head of “Finance” Department of VUZF University and Executive Director of “Saglasie” Life Insurance Company, Prof . Dr. Virginia Zhelyazkova, Deputy Rector for academic activity and quality, VUZF University and Director of research unit “Finance and Financial Management”, VUZF Lab , Assoc. Prof. Dr. Radostin Vazov, Deputy Rector for European Projects and Further Education, VUZF University and Head of „Insurance“ Department, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Julia Dobreva, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Lubka Tzenova , Assoc. Prof.  Dr. Teodora Lazarova, etc.  In the work of the conference participated scientists from over 10 universities from Bulgaria and Europe.

The main conclusion of the conference discussion is that PEPP has the potential to increase the number of the savers and lead to an increase of personal pension savings in the EU population.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Grigorii Vazov defined the discussion on PEPP as extremely important event for the financial community in Bulgaria and in the EU. According to Mr. Boyko Atanasov, the introduction of PEPP is one of the most serious initiatives of the EU in the field of capital pensions and defined the PEPP product as unique. Sandra Huck explained why PEPP is a valuable opportunity for savers and a living product for financial institutions – suppliers.

Representatives of three of the associations of financial institutions in Europe – Matti Leppala, Nicolas Jeanmart and Bernard Delbecque, focused on limiting the spending to 1% for basic PEPP. The view was expressed that the cost of providing advice needed to be deducted from the 1% limit. Otherwise there is a risk of reducing the number of PEPP suppliers and limiting product distribution. Evgenia Angelova, Deputy Chairperson, Committee on budget and finance, 44th National Assembly, and Hristina Pendicheva, State Expert, Financial Markets Regulation Directorate at the Ministry of Finance indicated that changes in Bulgarian sectoral legislation will be required with a view to carry out the PEPP distribution activities by the Bulgarian financial institutions. The PEPP Regulation was published in the Official EU Journal in July 2019. The EC is about to adopt the Level 2 legislation for the formation of the PEPP framework. In 2021 we can expect the first PEPPs on the market. The PEPP’s capital guarantee and the comparability between the different PEPPs were discussed by Francesco Briganti, Secretary General, CBBA Europe, Alliance for Cross-Border Compensation, Falco Valkenburg, Immediate Past Chairperson, Actuarial Association of Europe and Tatyana Bitunska, Chairperson of the MB, Bulgarian Actuarial Society. The expectations of some of the potential Bulgarian PEPP providers were shared by Evelina Miltenova, Chairperson of the MB of the Bulgarian Association of Supplementary Pension Security Companies (BASPSC) and Gloria Dimitrova, Member of the MB of the Association of Bulgarian Insurers.

Dr. Nikolay Slavchev, BASPSC, raised the issue for the legislative possibility for Bulgarian pension insurance companies to participate in the PEPP market in Bulgaria. The protection of the interests of savers at PEPP was discussed by Dr. Jivka Nikolova, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Jorik van Zanden and Ann Wouters, PhD students at the University of Utrecht. Dr. Elroy Haddad, Shamoon College of Engineering, shared Israel’s experience in developing capital pensions in the country. Investment aspects of the PEPP framework were discussed by Martin Parks, Managing Director, Member of Black Rock Global Public Policy Group, Yavor Achev, Manager of Amundi Asset Management for Bulgaria and Tsvetomir Iliev, Chief Investment Officer, Allianz Bulgaria Holding.

In relation with the conference, VUZF performed specialized survey on PEPP. The results of the survey were presented and commented during the event by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Stanislav Dimitrov, Chairman of the Organizing Committee and a member of the Scientific Council of the forum. 84% of respondents express positive attitude to saving for a voluntary pension. 41% of them would buy an online product for retirement savings. 62% are willing to contribute between 5% and 10% of their monthly income for voluntary savings. 67% of respondents identify tax relief as an important factor in the decision to save.

VUZF will prepare a final document with the main conclusions, proposals and recommendations of the international conference, which will be sent to the attention of all competent Bulgarian and European institutions, associations and stakeholders.

VUZF is also the only university in Bulgaria that is active and is initiating the conduction of expert discussions to help resolve potential cases surrounding the introduction of PEPP at the regional and European level. The two conferences, organized by VUZF, are the only events in Bulgaria, dedicated on PEPP issues. VUZF Lab announced also the establishment of Training and Consultation Center related to the introduction of PEPP, which is starting to operate at the Laboratory, where all interested parties can receive additional information and training in this area.

All the presentations from the event are available HERE.

Full videos from the panels of the conference are available on VUZF YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xl7qm1Q9Zw I panel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRWrywMx9Os II panel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOBDGjekvLI&t=7s III panel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sR9Lu6TkCP0 IV panel

Papers from the conference will be published by VUZF University’s publishing house.

The conference is organized in partnership with the National Science Fund and with the sponsorship of OZK- Insurance – general sponsor, and Armeec, CCB-Sila and Saglasie – sponsors of the event.

Media partners of the forum are: Investor.bg, Bloomberg TV Bulgaria, Dnes.bg, Economic.bg, Economy Magazine, Money.bg, Novinite.bg and Еcon.bg.