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The nationwide conference, Russia’s Pension System and Pension Laws: Current Issues and Future Prospects took place on October 2 and 3, 2014, in the West Siberian city of Khanty-Mansiysk. It was organized by the local non-state pension fund and the National Association of Non-State Pension Funds, and supported by the local government.

The conference was one of the biggest events in the pension fund industry in the past four years, said Alexei Okhlopkov, President of the Khanty-Mansiysk NPF*. “The participants had an opportunity to discuss important issues on today’s pension fund market agenda and work out solutions to existing problems,” he said. “The best non-state pension practices developed in Yugra** make Khanty-Mansiysk an ideal platform for discussing the most sensitive issues concerning the pension system and pension laws.” Source: Komsomolskaya Pravda.

The participants discussed recent changes in the pension legislation, development of non-state pension plans in Russia on the federal and regional scale, investment of pension contributions in housing construction, and interaction between non-state-pension funds and asset management companies.

VL managing partner Alexander Sitnikov delivered a report and moderated the Interaction of Non-State Pension Funds and Asset Management Companies: Judicial Practice roundtable. His presentation covered legal precedents involving the collection of actual damages and lost profits from the asset management company that violated the investment agreement, and disputes arising from unreliable evaluation of closed-end investment fund assets. Many issues also arise from interaction between non-state pension funds and asset management companies,Mr. Sitnikov noted adding that most of those issues are quite common and absolutely have to be discussed by the professional community.

The nationwide conference convened representatives of non-state pension funds and investment companies from around Russia, officials from the Bank of Russia, the Economic Development Ministry, the Finance Ministry, the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, the Russian Pension Fund and other agencies.

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*The VEGAS LEX Dispute Resolution Practice performed legal services for the Khanty-Mansiysk Non-State Pension Fund in a major dispute to collect RUR2 bln in accordance with a trust management agreement. The court rulings on the case have significantly influenced the development of the Russian practice of trust management of pension reserves and pension savings.

**Over the past few years, the West Siberian region of Yugra has built a unique non-state pension system, which includes a two-level system for teachers, doctors, and other government-financed professionals, and developed a set of policies aimed at increasing retirement benefits for the people employed by small and medium-sized businesses. Because of a series of consistent steps by the Yugra government aimed at improving the residents’ social security, the region became an absolute leader in Russia in terms of non-state pension system penetration and in terms of the amount of retirement benefits. As the conference participants noted, Yugra is the only Russian region, which has built an effective development institution that ensures effective pension money investment in the regional economy. Source: ugra-news.ru.