IOPS Regional Workshop on pension supervision for CIS, Kaukas and Central Asia region, 25-26 February 2010, Istanbul, Turkey

IOPS, jointly with the Turkish Treasury, organised a first Workshop on Pension Supervision for the CIS, Kaukas and the Central Asian region.

The majority of the governments in the CIS, Kaukas and Central Asia are recognising the importance of adoption of diversified approaches to pension provision. Many are initiating major reforms of their pension systems or are already in the process of developing legal frameworks for implementation of funded pension arrangements. The establishment of strong and efficient supervisory structures and techniques to oversee the activities of private pension/financial providers is one of the key components of such a reform process.

The workshop aimed to address high-level topics for the pension reform agenda in the region:

1. Introduction to IOPS work
2. Pension Developments in the CIS, Kaukas and Central Asia Region
3. DC Oriented Pension Markets – Supervisory Challenges
4. Introduction to Risk-Based Supervision
5. Structure and Governance of Pension Supervisory Authorities
6. Pension Reform, Financial Education and National Pension Awareness Campaigns

The workshop gathered government officials involved in pension supervision and private pension reforms from the CIS, Kaukas and the Central Asia region as well as a selected number of IOPS Member countries.

The meeting was conducted in English with simultaneous interpretation provided into Russian.

Agenda

Session 1: Introduction to IOPS

• Mr. Ross Jones - President of IOPS and Deputy Chairman of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, Australia: Introduction to IOPS and principles of pension supervision

Session 2: Pension Development in the Region

• Ms. Fiona Stewart - IOPS Secretariat: Pensions and the financial crisis
• Mr. Michael Cohen - IOPS Consultant: Pension developments and challenges in the region
• Ms. Tatyana Pogonysheva - Head of the Pension System Development Unit, Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, Republic of Belarus: Pension development in the region

Session 3: DC Oriented Pension Markets - Supervisory Challenges

• Ms. Solange Berstein - Superintendent, Superintendence of Pensions, Chile: DC supervision in Chile
• Mr. Tamas Fulop - Head of Supervisory Department, Hungarian Financial Supervisory Authority, Hungary: The Hungarian pension market and supervisiory challenges
• Mr. Selamet Yazici - Deputy Director General, General Directorate of Insurance, Undersecretariat of the Treasury, Turkey: Personal Pension System in Turkey and Supervisory Challenges 
• Ms. Mariya Khajieva - Director, Department of Supervision of the Securities Market Entities and Accumulative Pension Funds, Agency of Regulation and Supervision of Financial Market and Financial Organisations, Kazakhstan: The pension system of the Republic of Kazakhstan: challenges and measures undertaken

Session 4: Introduction to Risk-Based Supervision

• Ms. Merrie Hennessy - Policy Adviser, Policy and Research and Statistics, APRA, Australia: Introduction to risk-based supervision and RBS in Australia
• Ms. Solange Berstein: Risk-based supervision in Chile

Session 5: Structure and Governance of Pension Supervisory Authorities

• Ms. Fiona Stewart and Ms. Nina Paklina - IOPS Secretariat: Introduction to structure and governance of pension supervisory authoirities
• Mr. Tamas Fulop: Changes in the structure and governance of Hungarian pension supervision
• Mr. Yuiy Prozorov - Deputy Chairman, State Commission for Regulation of Financial Services Markets of the Ukraine: Institutional organisation of the NSPF supervision system in the Ukraine

Session 6: Pension Reform, Financial Education and National Pension Awareness Campaigns

• Ms. Fiona Stewart: Comunicating pension reforms
• Ms. Aysegul Kilic - Coordinator, Pensions Monitoring Centre, Turkey: The initiatives on financial awareness and financial education
• Mr. Bulent Eris: Customer education experiences in private pensions