Official Position on the Application of Provisions of the Act on Voluntary Pension Funds Regarding Delegation of Tasks to Third Parties under Article 76 of the VPFF Act

The Croatian Financial Services Supervisory Agency (hereinafter HANFA) has determined that there is a public interest in issuing this Official Position, following open questions arising in practice regarding the interpretation of relevant statutory provisions of the Act on Voluntary Pension Funds (Official Gazette nos. 19/14, 29/18, 115/18; hereinafter VPFF Act) concerning the delegation of tasks to third parties under Article 76 of the VPFF Act. Specifically, it is questioned whether receiving inquiries from fund members by a third party that simultaneously responds to such inquiries falls within the scope of application of the VPFF Act provisions on delegation of tasks to third parties. With the aim of promoting, organizing, and supervising measures for the effective functioning of the financial market in terms of harmonizing the actions of supervisory authorities under Article 2(2) of the Act on the Croatian Financial Services Supervisory Agency (Official Gazette nos. 140/05 and 12/12), the following is determined. Based on Article 15(4) of the Act on the Croatian Financial Services Supervisory Agency, HANFA adopted this OFFICIAL POSITION at a meeting of the Governing Board held on October 7, 2021. I. Relevant statutory provisions are initially stated. First, Article 76(1) of the VPFF Act stipulates the tasks that a pension company may delegate to third parties. Furthermore, Article 76(1)(2) of the VPFF Act provides that a pension company may delegate administrative tasks from Article 11(3)(1) to (9) and (11) of the VPFF Act. Specifically, Article 11(3)(3) of the VPFF Act states that receiving and processing inquiries from fund members constitutes an administrative task that may be delegated. II. Following the above, it follows that submitting an inquiry by fund members (regarding units in the pension fund) to a third party, which receives them and subsequently communicates certain data (as responses to the inquiries) to the inquiry submitters (fund members), all based on data accessible to the third party (processing inquiries based on available data), constitutes receiving and processing fund members' inquiries by a third party as an administrative task to which the VPFF Act provisions on delegation apply. Therefore, receiving inquiries regarding, for example, the number of units in the pension fund, the value of units on a requested date, the total amount paid in Croatian kunas, and transactions conducted during the requested period, as well as responding to them, constitute administrative tasks subject to delegation rules. III. This Official Position is published on HANFA's website. CLASS: 008-02/21-03/01 REGISTRATION NO.: 326-01-70-72-21-5 Zagreb, October 7, 2021. CHAIRMAN OF THE GOVERNING BOARD dr. sc. Ante Žigman