We welcome the opportunity to respond to this consultation on sustainable corporate governance.

From the text of the consultation it was unclear to us, whether IORPs would be affected as investors of those companies subject to new governance requirements, or whether they themselves would also be subject to those new requirements. In responding to this consultation, we have therefore considered both perspectives: first, IORPs are of course investors and need information about the companies they invest in. The need for extensive and sound ESG information is growing with the introduction of the Disclosure Regulation, which requires financial market participants to publish information about the assets they are invested in.

Second, IORPs are also companies and subject to governance requirements under the IORP II Directive (see Chapter 1 “system of governance”; and its national transpositions). Some of the questions we have therefore answered from the perspective of a company potentially subject to new governance requirements. For IORPs closely related to a sponsoring employer, the boundaries between those two perspectives are blurred: the governance requirements for the sponsor are likely to have an impact on the IORP as well.

From our perspective it would not be beneficial to include IOPRs in horizontal legislation with the aim to improve governance. Since IORPs already have governance requirements in the IORP II Directive, these should be amended if necessary (this could be done for all relevant (financial) sectors). In the case of IORPs, national law makers could then tailor the national requirements to their specific circumstances.