Disgruntled regulator

Officials at the Financial Supervisory Commission (KNF) are voicing annoyance with the Ministry of Labor's recent proposal that money from the country's open pension funds (OFE) should be transferred to Social Insurance Administration (ZUS), which would then pay pensions. The Commission's chairman, Stanisław Kluza, said that the idea came up "suddenly."

"Certainly it wasn't discussed with me," the chairman commented.

According to the pension law from 1997, the pensions from OFEs were to be paid out by the private pension funds in which the money had been invested. The first payouts from the open funds were to be made in 2009, but no law specifying the details of how the payouts should be conducted has been passed.

KNF has a major interest in the issue, as it supervises the OFE market. "From the supervisory institution's point of view, it is not optimal that ZUS would supervise such actions," Kluza said.

"ZUS supervising itself is not optimal either, and the Ministry of Labor's supervision of ZUS also raises doubts," he added. Kluza also announced that KNF will prepare its own analysis of the problem, which should be ready in February.

The Commission has just celebrated the first 100 days of its activity and Kluza said the first tests for the organization had been passed successfully. He announced that KNF would look to the British supervisory body, the Financial Services Authority, as a model for working out the rules and conduct of supervision. The two bodies are holding talks which are to lead to cooperation.