Occupational pension schemes
Group life reporting and comprehensive transparency
The first revision of the Federal Act on Occupational Retirement, Survivors’ and Disability Pension Plans (BVG) in 2004 included creating a framework for ensuring transparency in how surpluses in occupational pension schemes are distributed.
Life insurers must provide insured occupational pension funds with the information they need to meet their transparency obligations and to enable the funds’ governing bodies to fulfil their mandate.
The rules on group life reporting for occupational pension schemes are set out in FINMA Circular 2008/36. It states that insurers must provide FINMA annually with a data collection portfolio, an accompanying report and a disclosure proposal as part of their group life reporting for occupational pension schemes. This documentation is reviewed by the company’s external auditor based on FINMA’s standard audit program.
Through the insurance market report and the data on occupational pension schemes, FINMA publishes detailed information about the activities of all life insurers operating in occupational pensions in Switzerland.
Data on group life reporting for occupational pension schemes
Tariff approval
Tariffs and general conditions of insurance for occupational pension schemes must be submitted to FINMA for approval before they are applied (Art. 5 para. 1 ISA in conjunction with Art. 4 para. 2 let. r). The basis for approving a tariff is provided by Article 38 ISA. The intended premiums may neither be abusively high nor so low that they would threaten the insurer’s solvency.
Together with the applications for tariff approval, the insurer must provide FINMA with certain disclosures, including information about the portfolio, statistics on the tariff bases, and on the tariff classes and experience-based pricing. All necessary documentation is shown automatically under the enclosures when completing form R in the survey platform. Further information about this can be found in the business plan section.
It will be published in the Federal Gazette whenever a tariff ruling is issued that affects ongoing insurance contracts. (Art. 84 ISA).
