The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) Canada posted information on the Assessment of Pension Plan Regulations published in the Canada Gazette on January 4, 2012.
Authority for OSFI to recover costs to administer the Pension Benefits Standards Act, 1985 (PBSA) through the annual assessment of federally registered private pension plans was recently transferred from the PBSA to the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions Act (OSFI Act). As a result, regulations pursuant to the new authority under the OSFI Act have been enacted. With the implementation of the new assessment regulations, the prior regulations under the PBSA are repealed.
Objectives of the new regulations:
- support the move of the assessment authority from the PBSA to the OSFI Act;
- set out the formula used to calculate plan assessments effective April 1, 2012;
- make modest adjustments to the formula, primarily to better align annual assessments with the costs of supervising and regulating pension plans by including retirees and other beneficiaries; and
- provide for the transition from the old formula to the new formula.
In addition to supporting the move of the authority from the PBSA to the OSFI Act, the changes also affect the assessment formula. The new assessment formula includes some adjustments to the prior methodology for charging fees under the PBSA, however, the total value of assessments collected by OSFI will remain unaffected. OSFI is updating the reporting forms affected to accommodate the adjustments to the assessment formula, and existing processes will continue.
The assessment rate under the new regulations, for plan years ending between October 1, 2011 and September 30, 2012, will be posted in the Canada Gazette Part I, and additional information, including instructions for payment, will be available on the OSFI site in early 2012.