FINANCIAL SUPERVISION COMMISSION

SOCIAL INSURANCE SUPERVISION DIVISION

Requirements to the contents of marketing or printed information materials of pension funds and pension companies

I. Scope:

  1. These provisions shall determine the requirements to the contentsof the marketing and printed information materials of pension funds and pension companies (PC), including the contents of the information published on the PC’s web site.
  2. These requirements shall be valid for all marketing and printed information materials describing the characteristics, products, services and performance of PCs and supplementary pension funds under their management. The requirements shall apply to the materials issued and distributed by the company, by other persons on behalf of the company, or with the participation of he company representatives when the possible addressees are the current or prospective clients and insurers.
  3. These requirements shall also apply to the materials that are provided by the PC upon signing of an application for participation in a supplementary mandatory pension fund, upon conclusion of a contract for supplementary pension insurance, or upon submission of an application for transfer out.

II. Requirements to the contents of the marketing and printed information materials:

  1. They shall be in Bulgarian and in case they are accompanied by foreign language translation,the latter shall fully correspond to the Bulgarian text.
  2. The text shall be comprehensible, the used terminology and concepts shall be in compliance with the terminology adopted by legislation.
  3. They shall not contain texts that contradictthe regulatory framework.
  4. They shall present precise and up-to-date information both on the company and on the pension funds under its management, as well asthe conditions for participation.
  5. They shall not promote products and services that are not being provided at the moment.
  6. They shall not contain incorrect, misleading or deceptive data and information:
  7. they shall not misrepresent or fail to disclose important facts and circumstances, nor shall they use ambiguous or exaggerated information, as a result of which the insured person might be mislead or might make a wrong conclusion regarding a certain PC or the supplementary pension system in general;
  8. whenever figures are quoted, the indicators and the periods to which they apply shall be clearly stated;
  9. They shall not contain any promises as to the attainment of future return from investments.
  10. Each marketing or printed information material containing information about the performance of the pension company and the pension funds managed by it shall also contain a text to the effect that the published results should not be by default considered indicative of the future performance.
  11. The data regarding the performance of the PC and pension funds under its management shall be in conformity with the data submitted to the Financial Supervision Commission (FSC).
  12. The operations of the financial group of which the pension company is part shall be clearly differentiated from the operations of the pension company and the performance of the group shall not be presented as performance of the pension company.
  13. Whenever references are made to documents, surveyresults or statistical information, the source where the information could be compared or obtained in its entirety shall be indicated.
  14. Any quotations or references used shall be strictly precise and they shall be used only when there are no doubts as to their authenticity.
  15. The conditions for pension fund participation and the performance results shall not be compared with the ones of other PCs and supplementary pension funds.
  16. No self-classifications,such as ‘biggest’, ’best’, ’leader’ and the like,of the company and/or the supplementary pension funds under its management shall be used.
  17. Only individuals and legal entities that directly hold shares in the PC shall be indicated as company shareholders.
  18. In case of amendments to the regulatory framework or to the documents that govern the operations of pension funds, the contents of the marketing and information materials shall be updated or their usage shall be discontinued, insofar as they contain texts that are affected by it. The web page of the PC shall be updated within 7 days following the enforcement of the amendments, insofar as it contains texts that are affected by it. The old texts could only be used with specific notification of the date of their amendment.

III. Requirements to the web-pages of PCs:

  1. The information contained in the pension company’s web-page shall be compliant with the requirements under item II.
  2. The pension company’s web-page shall contain the following:
  3. The full name of the company, its head office and management address, telephone numbers and e-mail for contacts;
  4. Data regarding the company’s court registration and pension license;
  5. Current status of all circumstances that are subject to entry into the Commercial register, as well as short biographic data of the executive directors and members of the governing and controlling bodies of the pension company;
  6. Data regarding the shareholders of the PC that hold directly 10 and over 10 percent of its capital – name, size of their share;
  7. Addresses and telephone numbers of the company’s offices in the country;
  8. Names of the supplementary mandatory and voluntary pension funds established and managed by the company, data concerning their court registration and the permit for managing the respective fund, as well as the NSSI registration number for the mandatory pension funds;
  9. Composition of the trustee and consultative boards, telephones and addresses for contact with the chairperson or another representative of the respective board;
  10. The custodian bank of every supplementary pension fund and the broker dealers with which the PC has concluded contracts for securities transactions;
  11. Rules of the organization and operations of the supplementary mandatory and supplementary voluntary pension funds, as well as the names of the two central daily newspapers publishing notifications regarding the amendments to the Rules;
  12. Brief statement of the company’s investment policy and the structure of the investment portfolio, separately for each pension fund managed by the company;
  13. The unit value for the current day and for the period following 01.07.2004 - separately for each pension fund managed by the company, as well as the name of the central daily newspaper publishing the unit value valid for the last working day of each month;
  14. The procedures and deadlines for reviewing complaints related to the operations of the company and the pension funds under its management. The bodies, which shall receive complaints and signals under art.174 of the SIC and the Rules for the organization and operations of the respective funds shall be specifically indicated;
  15. Samples of applications, inquiries, forms and other documents relating to the PF participants’ rights that have been approved by the pension company’s governing bodies. These shall be published in a format that enables their printing out and filling in;
  16. Financial statements, documents and other materials that the PC is obliged by law to publish. The date and place of publication shall be clearly specified;
  17. Sample of the identification documents, which the sales agents should use in his/her contacts with the PF participants and prospective clients;
  18. Link to the public registers of the Financial Supervision Commission pursuant to art. 122e and art. 123d, paragraph8 of the Social Insurance Code.

IV. Internal control over the contents of marketing and printed information materials

  1. The internal control service of the PC shall exercise control over the contents of the marketing and information materials that are being published and distributed, as well as over the web page and its updating. Each material that is subject to printing and distribution by the PC shall be signed by the executive director and the manager of the internal control service.

These requirements areadopted on the grounds of art. 123i, paragraph 2 of the Social Insurance Code with Decision No ….. / ….. 2004 by the deputy Chairperson of the Financial Supervision Commission, head of the Social Insurance Supervision Division.

The PCs shall be obliged to bring the contents of marketing and information materials and the company’s web site into conformity with the above provisions within the deadline pursuant §110 of the Transition and Final Provisions of the Act on the amendments of the Mandatory Social Insurance Code.