Agreement with the Observatory of European Supplementary Pension Systems

BanSabadell Seguros becoming a sponsor of the Observatory demonstrates the company’s interest in tackling the issues that come with increased longevity, the need to develop complementary pension schemes as an essential part of the welfare state, and the promotion of long-term savings.

According to Observatory director Dr Xavier Varea, “our platform is mainly focused on training, research and the dissemination of knowledge about pension schemes within the welfare state”. The incorporation of BanSabadell Vida y Pensiones reaffirms its commitment to these aims.

Esther Pichardo, savings and pensions director at BanSabadell Vida y Pensiones, said that “(t)he Observatory enables us to disseminate knowledge and raise awareness of the need for supplementary pension schemes within the available range of social solutions in order to contribute to the future well-being of society. We want to achieve the partnership and involvement of all the necessary players (society, the state and the business community) to make retirement savings a reality”.

By means of this agreement, both institutions undertake to jointly create synergies that will favour both greater social knowledge of the welfare state as well as the study of factors that will favour the development of a comprehensive social protection system in which complementary pension schemes have a role to play.

The sponsorship of BanSabadell Vida y Pensiones will help the Observatory strengthen its status as a platform open to society in which both the main entities of the supplementary pension market and organisations with a solid social, professional and academic status participate, and where different stakeholders share the objective of raising collective awareness based on knowledge of society’s problems.

The Observatory has been a reminder of the need for political consensus in order to fully implement the recommendations of the Toledo Pact on supplementary pension schemes. This implementation will also require employers and trade unions to incorporate supplementary pension instruments into collective agreements through social dialogue and collective bargaining.