ING receives first fine in private pensions industry: 382,000 euros

ING Asigurari and ING Fond de Pensii have been fined 225,000 RON (62,500 euros), and 1.16 million RON (320,000 euros) respectively, by the Private Pensions Supervisory Commission (CSSPP) for outsourcing their asset management operations, which was forbidden in a Commission decision from April. This is the first fine and the toughest measure taken by the Commission so far, with other private pensions managers received written warnings in the past. The total value of the fine is 382,500 euros, accounting for 0.5% of the two companies’ share capital. This is the smallest fine that a private pensions manager can receive, whilst the maximum value is 5% of the share capital. ING Asigurari manages two voluntary pension funds (3rd pillar), ING Clasic and ING Optim, with assets worth 9.7 million RON (2.7 million euros) at the end of May, and has around 28,000 clients. ING Fond de Pensii is the leader of the mandatory pensions market (2nd pillar), with almost 1.4 million clients and contributions collected worth 9.23 million euros at the end of May. The Pension Commission fined the two companies for outsourcing their asset management operations to ING Asset Management B.V. The Netherlands, the local branch of ING Asset Management.