SIMPLE INFORMATION AND GOOD CORPORATE GOVERNANCE WILL ENABLE IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PENSION SYSTEM

Cusco-Peru, May 16, 2014. The second day of the 12th FIAP International Seminar and 1st AAFP International Conference began with the panel “Corporate Governance, Transparency and Relationships with Members and Pensioners” and the opening address was delivered by Daniel Blume, Senior Policy Analyst, Corporate Affairs Division, Directorate for Financial and Enterprise Affairs of the Organisation for Co-operation and Economic Development (OECD).

His presentation outlined the scope and the form of corporate governance in place in different countries worldwide and the way that companies apply this type of governance.
After providing the first guidelines on this topic and highlighting the OECD’s work in the development of issues related to corporate governance, the moderator of the panel, Santiago Montenegro, President of the Colombian Association of Severance Pay and Pension Fund Administrators (ASOFONDOS), gave the floor to the panelists.

Good Corporate Governance System
The first panelist was Manuel Antonio Méndez del Río Piovich, Chairman of Fundación Microfinanzas BBVA of Spain, who emphasized that it was necessary to design a good system of corporate governance with mechanisms and structures governing the asymmetries of information, conflicts of interest and ethical issues, taking into account the distribution and balance of power and the provision of incentives.

“We must move on from systems of prevention based on eminence to systems based on evidence,” said Manuel Méndez.

Work on measuring the corporate governance in place in companies is already underway in Peru, and the Lima Stock Exchange gives annual awards to the companies achieving the highest standards in corporate governance assessment.

Clear and Simple Information for Members
Another one of the issues addressed by the panel was the importance of providing straightforward and simple information for streamlining interaction with contributors.

In relation to this issue, Mariano Álvarez, CEO of AFP Habitat, Peru, said that the basic principle that the AFPs should take into account is that the member is the “boss”, since he is the owner of funds and his ability to access information is important for this reason.

“The present challenge is to provide this information in a clear and simple way, bearing in mind that members have different degrees of interest and education,” said Mariano Álvarez.

Another one of the major problems is that in many cases members have expectations and questions that are not answered and one of the interesting proposals in response to this issue presented by the panelist Giovanna Prialé, Director of the Institute of Personal Finance, of Peru, is that the AFPs should devote more time to “listening to” their members with the aim of developing products suitable to their needs.

The importance of financial education was also highlighted, as in previous panels, but this time more attention was paid to generating changes in attitude through this kind of education.
One of the final points discussed in the panel was the challenge of teaching members to manage the risks that may arise.

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See press release here