The role of the Financial Supervision Authority in Pension Fund Governance. The Example of Open Pension Funds

Abstract

The relationship between the open pension fund (OFE) and the general pension society (PTE) is very complex and takes the form of an inter-organizational agency relationship. The OFE has a legal personality and is equipped with only one body, the PTE. The PTE is organized in the form of a joint-stock company and creates, manages, and represents the OFE to third parties. However, the legislator did not provide the OFE with a body that would represent fund members’ interests. Therefore, based on particular laws, significant supervisory powers over the activities of open pension funds have been assigned to the Financial Supervision Authority (KNF). The scope of the KNF's tasks was defined very broadly and divided into typically supervisory, analytical, educational, cooperative, and informational tasks. The deliberations in the article are embedded in the positive theory of the agency, focusing on the mechanisms limiting the agency's conflict. Governance mechanisms were defined as legal institutions whose purpose is to protect the interests of the OFE members. It was assumed that in the OFE-PTE relationship, a member of an open pension fund is a principal and a general pension society is an agent. The aim of the study is to determine the place and role of the Financial Supervision Authority in the governance of open pension funds.