Pension funds now required to publish accounts

Pension funds and life insur­ers carrying on fund admin­istration businesses are now required to publish annual financial statements in order to improve disclosures and accountability.

The Insurance and Pen­sions Commission (Ipec) in a circular said the pub­lished statements should at minimum include the fund’s investment policy and description of the fund including contributions rates and any changes to the fund rules. The reports should have the basic requirements such as statement of finan­cial position, statement of comprehensive income, statement of cash flows, membership statistics, and notes to the financial state­ments.

Ipec Commissioner Dr Grace Muradzikwa said the annual financial statements should also have the list of spon­soring employers including the contribution arrears if any per sponsoring employ­ers.

She said details of any sin­gle investments exceeding 5 percent of the net assets available for benefits should also be made available.

Pursuant to the stand-alone and self-administered pension funds, these are required to publish their financial statements in appropriate media.

Pension funds with single and or related sponsoring employers, whose mem­bership profile is predomi­nantly active, that is at least 70 percent being active, may publish their accounts through the employer’s bulletin board. On the other hand, life insurers admin­istering insured funds shall publish Pension Funds return in a newspaper of national circulation.

However, the Commission said it has the right to exempt other funds which do not meet stated criteria from publishing in the newspaper, provided they demonstrate how they will make the financial statements accessi­ble to their members.

Zimbabwe’s pensions indus­try which has assets worth over billions is known for mobilising resources by way of long-term contractual savings, which resources become available for invest­ment in the economy.”-ebusinessweekly