The Financial Supervision Commission considered and adopted at the first vote a draft Ordinance on the requirements for payment funds.

The Act to Amend and Supplement the Social Insurance Code (promulgated SG No. 19/2021) stipulates that the payment of pensions and deferred payments in case of acquired pension rights from universal pension funds is carried out by the funds for payment of lifelong pensions, respectively the funds for deferred payments (payment funds). The requirements for the formation and maintenance of the funds for payment of lifelong pensions and the funds for deferred payments, the calculation of the required amount in them and its excess, the supplementation of the funds and the release of funds from them are determined by an ordinance of the Financial Supervision Commission.

According to the Social Insurance Code, the main source for the formation of funds for payments are the funds in the individual accounts of the persons insured in a universal pension fund, with whom pension contracts, respectively contracts for deferred payment have been concluded. In view of the daily calculation of the value of one unit in the universal pension fund and in order to avoid a difference between the receipts in the payment funds and the obligations arising from the concluded pension contracts and deferred payment contracts, the ordinance stipulates that as a rule the accounts of the persons concluding such contracts shall be transferred to the payment funds on the day of concluding the respective contract. In order to provide sufficient time for the transfer of funds, it is possible to perform this action on the first working day after the conclusion of the contract by accruing the obligation on the day of the contract.

The law also gives the right to pensioners and persons with deferred payments to request recalculation of the received pension or deferred payment with contributions received after the conclusion of the respective contract, e.g. if the person has continued to work or as a result of the late transfer of contributions for previous months. In these cases, the transfer of funds from the accounts is made on the date provided by the legislator – the first day of the month following the month of submission of the request for recalculation, respectively on the first working day when it is a non-working day.

The ordinance regulates the required amount of the payment funds, amounting to the obligations to pensioners, the persons with deferred payments and their heirs, including the respective analytical account for the undistributed investment income of the funds received in the funds from individual accounts, intended for storage of the amount of payments in case of failure to achieve the expected return. According to the financial and economic nature and property nature of an analytical account provided for in the Social Insurance Code, the ordinance stipulates that a resource (funds) will be available for the amount / value reflected in the account, which should not be used for purposes other than updating of payments and which does not materialize financial legal relations with the pension insurance company. In other words, this account should be used to set aside funds that can be used specifically for the purpose of updating payments, and these funds do not have a functional link with the pension insurance company.

The ordinance also stipulates the deadlines for supplementing the funds for making payments, which is done from the reserves provided by law and, if necessary, with additional own funds of the pension insurance company, and the release of the excess from them. The procedure for release of funds regulated by the draft is in line with the procedure for the reserves for minimum profitability in the funds for supplementary mandatory pension insurance and the reserves for guaranteeing the gross amount of contributions to the universal pension funds.

The ordinance envisages changes in other current ordinances of the Financial Supervision Commission, which aim to harmonize and synchronize the regulations with the Social Insurance Code.

The draft and the reasons for it are published on the website of the Financial Supervision Commission in the section Regulations, subsection Public Consultations, and the deadline for submitting comments and proposals on the draft is 14 days from its publication until 24.06.2021 inclusive.