The Directorate of BCR Pensii, fined by the CSSPP

• Mircea Oancea: The fines were levied because the officials of the company were unable to provide justifications for the irregularities found

• BCR is reviewing the report of the pensions regulator

Three members of the Directorate of BCR Pensii were sanctioned by the Commission for the Oversight of the Private Pension System, due to operational problems (CSSPP), Mircea Oancea, the president of the Commission said, in an interview.

He said: "In the monthly bulletin, namely on May 15th, 2015, we will publish information concerning this subject; namely that in April, when the regular audit at BCR Pensii was completed, we have passed several sanctions against the three members of the Directorate of the company.

BCR Pensii has a Directorate and Supervisory Board. Due to some operational deficiencies found during the regular audit, which has verified the operation of the company over a period of 3-3.5 years, the company was sanctioned with a written warning and the members of the directorate were fined based on the responsibilities each of them had".

Mircea Oancea said that the fines levied against BCR Pensii were given because the officials of the company were not convincing, and they were unable to provide explanations which would explain the situations and the problems which were uncovered.

In the case of BCR Pensii it was a case of "slight negligence", but is not a "serious issue" which would create a risk in the management activity, the chairman of the CSSPP said.

Mircea Oancea said: "They did however take all the appropriate measures and we feel it was more of a slight negligence".

Namely, in the situations which were encountered, they did not assign a serious weight to operations which we view as important. As a result, due to what we found during the regular audit, they were given a fine, so they can understand that upon the next verification we were to find that these issues have not been fixed, the sanctions will be a lot harsher next time.

We had some concrete findings which can be found in the decision which will be published on the date of May 15th, 2012.

It needs to be understood that we have found in the current case is not even remotely a serious issue which would create a management risk".

Following the audit of BCR Pensii total fines of 16,000 lei were levied.

The directorate of BCR Pensii comprises Simona Diţescu - president and CEO, Cristian Ilieş Vasile - member - executive director and Corneliu Dragoş Milea - member - executive director. The supervisory board of BCR Pensii is made up of Michael Beitz - president, Oana Petrescu - member and Dragoş Neacşu - member.

The representatives of BCR Pensii said: "BCR Pensii is reviewing the report drawn up by the Commission for the Oversight of the Private Pension System, and will make a decision within the delays established by the law."

Just like in the banking system, the Commission is authorizing members of the Council, members of the Directorate, people which are responsible for what is happening within the company and the internal audit, according to the president of the Commission. He said that every person that goes through the filter of the CSSPP presents the mandate contract and the responsibilities of the position they hold: "Essentially, we track the manner in which these people carried out their responsibilities. The moment they fail to carry them out in an appropriate manner, we are forced to fine them, as appropriate".

However, the CSSPP wants the measures it has taken to help remedy the problem, as well as serve as deterrents, to prevent such situations from happening in the future, according to Mircea Oancea.

"If these measures are implemented, the activity of the pension fund manager will obviously be better in the future", he said.

At the end of Q1 2012, the BCR Privately Managed Pension Fund (Second Pillar) had net assets of 391.40 million lei, up 55.13%, over the same period of 2011, according to data published by in the Informational Bulletin for Q1 of the CSSPP. The number of participants in the BCR fund was, at the end of Q1 2012, of 402.01 thousand people, up 15.41% over the similar period of 2011.

The total value of the assets of the Optional Pension Fund BCR Plus (3rd Pillar) climbed 29.70% in Q1 2012, to 8215000 lei. During the reviewed period, the number of participants in BCR Plus increased to 75,774 people, more than 22.51% over Q1 2011.