The Pensions Authority publishes its Annual Report and Accounts 2015

16 August 2016: Today, the Pensions Authority published its Annual Report and Accounts for 2015.

Commenting on the Annual Report, the Chairperson of the Pensions Authority David Begg said: “Our responsibility is to supervise and provide guidance for Trustees, Personal Retirement Saving Account (PRSA) providers and Registered Administrators who have responsibility for the retirement savings of almost one million members with combined assets of about €100 billion.

Begg went on to state that “While the Authority’s compliance supervision work takes first priority at all times, we have also devoted significant attention to developing pensions reform proposals with the objective of improving the outcomes for pensions savers.”

The Pensions Regulator, Brendan Kennedy said: “2015 was a busy year. The annual report sets out the wide range of supervisory activity undertaken by the Authority. We also expanded our range of model documents and codes of practice to help trustees and others to comply with their responsibilities under the Pensions Act and to set out standards of good practice. 2015 was also an active year for our enquiry services and our website pensionsauthority.ie, which are an impartial source of information and support for those seeking pension information.”

Looking forward to the remainder of 2016, Kennedy said: “The focus of our work will be to:

• continue with our varied programme of proactive compliance activity including on-site inspections of administrators, reviews of PRSA compliance, desk compliance audits, and checking of employer pension access provision
• resolve the small number of defined benefit schemes whose funding position is non-compliant with the funding standard. This may include issuing orders for wind-up where appropriate
• continue our programme of engagement with trustees of defined benefit schemes
• issue further guidance for all trustees, including further codes of practice for both defined contribution and defined benefit scheme trustees
• finalise our pension reform proposals for submission to the Department of Social Protection

See 'Regulatory activity and 2015 statistics at a glance' under 'Related Documents'.

ENDS

For further information, contact:

David Malone
Head of Operations and Communications
The Pensions Authority
Tel: (01) 613 1900

Note to Editors

The Pensions Authority is the statutory body established by the Pensions Act, 1990 to regulate occupational pension schemes, trust based RACs and Personal Retirement Savings Accounts (PRSAs)