XBRL-Based Pension Reporting Comes into Focus Across the EU
Regulators around the world continue to adopt the XBRL standard for structured digital business reporting. The standard streamlines the process, enhances comparability and improves the way that risk-based supervision works. Coming up fast in Europe: pension fund reporting.
IORP II is an updated European regulation for occupational pension funds, designed to increase pensioner protection by implementing financial, governance and supervision requirements for IORPs (Institutions for Occupational Retirement Provision). The EU directive was passed in January 2017, and came into force in January 2019 with the first reports required in Q3 2019.
The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) is using XBRL as the standard format for IORP II reporting to ensure harmonisation and technical compliance in supervisory reporting across the EU. The final Pension Funds Data Point Model and XBRL Taxonomy can be found here. This means that some national regulators (data is collected at a country level, not a European level) are busy ensuring that their systems are XBRL ready, with some taking steps to integrate their reporting systems across different areas of regulatory responsibility (for example, insurance as well as pensions). It also means that pension funds are getting ready to report their operations under the new rules.
There are a range of market offerings, with many urging a robust implementation strategy with properly XBRL-enabled systems, others providing information sessions, and others working towards market partnerships.
Read more about IORP II implementation on the EIOPA site here.
