Rational Pension Supervision.First Experiencies of Central and Eastern European States in Comparison with Other Countries

The subject of our consideration are the experiences relating to pension fund regulations from the point of view of their safety of operations in five countries of Central and Eastern Europe. These countries represent two groups. The first includes Hungary and Poland, where the decision to establish pension funds was made earlier on. Thus, they can now share their own, though modest, experience, especially Hungary. Moreover, the debate in both countries was very extensive and heated [Ferge, 1998; Golinowska/Hausner, 1998]. The second group includes Bulgaria, Estonia and Lithuania, the countries that passed laws on pension funds in 1999. In this period, it was the issue of introducing regulations on the safety of operations and on guaranteeing a specified level of benefits from pension funds that was extremely relevant. In analysing the socially safe functioning of pension funds, special attention has been devoted to institutions supervising the pension funds. The present work was developed in the following order. The first step involved the identification of risks and their ranking according to the degree of danger (cf. Part 1). In the second chapter we discuss the instruments for safeguarding against and reducing the appearance of risk. For these instruments, it was important to define them, as well as to analyse the legal regulations, administrative standards, financial management standards, codes of ethics, the formula and competence of supervisory institutions, and the working of the market. Before presenting the principles and means of balanced supervision over pension funds, in Part 3 we have pointed out the basic dilemmas of achieving a balance between economic and social goals. Next, we have attempted to show the proper balance between regulatory instruments and self-regulation in order to achieve a fund's balanced operations in terms of both effectiveness and safety (cf. Part 4). The fifth part of the report shows the practical experience of other countries, including those with much more experience in this area than can be found in Central and Eastern Europe. Taking into account the history of pension funds' development in these countries, we observe two roads of development of safety institutions.