The Pan-European Pension Product Regulation: A Huge Opportunity for the Luxembourg Fund Industry

Abstract

Currently, there is a dynamic and ongoing improvement in life expectancies that is not accounted for in pension systems designed to provide financial security in retirement. All over Europe, there are currently employment-based (2nd pillar) pension funds and first pillar pay-as-you-go (PAYG) state pensions systems that are facing huge funding deficits as a result of that. Recently both the EU parliament and the EU Council took their stance on the introduction of an European legal framework for Pan-European Personal Pensions (“PEPP”) an “European 401(k) account” that may prospectively be provided by, amongst others, banks, fund managers, and insurance companies. The introduction of the PEPP could potentially be a solution to mitigate the growing challenge of this so-called “pension gap”, i.e. the gap in savings most people have to ensure they have a good standard of living in retirement. Over the next months the EU parliament and EU Council will be exchanging on how to combine their perspectives in view of a final vote for the introduction of a Pan-European Pension Product Regulation (“PEPPR”). In anticipating a final vote, this contribution discusses the huge opportunity that the introduction of a PEPPR offers to the Luxembourg fund industry. For that purpose, this contribution first provides an overview of the PEPP as a “wrapper (Fund) product”. This article then discusses the PEPP (product) passport and the PEPPR governance provisions (intermediary, product and sales regulation) applicable to PEPP providers, distributors and depositaries. It continues by discussing the opportunities for the Luxembourg fund industry and then concludes.