The Regulation on a Pan-European Personal Pension Product (“PEPP”) deals with the registration, manufacturing, distribution and supervision of PEPP.

It was adopted and published in the Official Journal of the EU in July 2019. It is directly applicable and started to apply on 22 March 2022. BIPAR and its member associations have been very active on this file all along the legislative process.

The PEPP is an optional, 2nd regime instrument, complementary to the existing state-based (pillar 1), occupational (pillar 2) and national personal pensions (pillar 3) and has standardised key product features.

PEPP can be distributed by insurance intermediaries offering insurance under IDD and investment firms providing advice under MiFID II. Some specific PEPP rules also apply to all kinds of distributors. All PEPP providers have to offer “Basic PEPPs”, which are “simple and affordable default investment options” that have to provide capital protection and where costs and fees shall not exceed 1 % of the accumulated capital per year (this includes (initial) advice costs).

The Regulation foresees mandatory advice (with a suitability test) and a demand and needs test for PEPP providers and distributors, for all PEPPs, including Basic PEPPs.

In December 2016, the Directive on the activities and supervision of Institutions for Occupational Retirement Provision (IORP II) was adopted.

It entered into force in January 2017 and Member States had until 13 January 2019 to transpose it into national law. Many Member States were late in their transposition.

Occupational pension funds or IORPs are financial institutions which manage collective retirement schemes for employers in order to provide retirement benefits to their employees. Occupational pensions, which include an employer contribution, are known as the "second pillar" of pension systems.

The IORP II Directive aims to ensure the soundness of occupational pensions, to better inform pension scheme members and beneficiaries with a standardised “Pension Benefit Statement” at EU level, to promote cross-border activity and to help long-term investment by encouraging occupational pension funds to invest long-term in growth-, environment- and employment-enhancing economic activities. It does not concern issues of national social, labour, tax or contract law, or the adequacy of pension provision in Member States.