The warning from the president of the Insurance and Pension Funds Supervision Authority (ASF) about the need for complementary retirement plans and criticism of the current PPR framework have once again placed savings for old age at the center of the debate in Portugal, at a time when relevant changes in the value of public pensions for workers are anticipated.
Gabriel Bernardino warned that, “from 2042 onwards, public pension replacement rates will reduce due to the calculation of the entire contributory career”, arguing that savings for retirement will have to gain a more structural role.
A warning for workers retiring after 2042
The president of the ASF spoke at a conference promoted by the regulator, held on Monday, under the theme “Savings with purpose: your future, our progress”. Among other entities, the European Commissioner for Financial Services, Maria Luís Albuquerque, also participated in the meeting, according to SAPO.
For Gabriel Bernardino, the expected impact on the evolution of public pensions makes a reinforcement of complementary solutions inevitable. “Supplementary savings are no longer optional and become structural in order to protect the standard of living in retirement”, he stated.
PPR under criticism: between the short term and inflation
The official criticized the current regime and the role of the Retirement Savings Plans (PPR), arguing that “they should function as long-term capitalization plans”. In his assessment, many of these products “rarely fulfill their mission, as they have been used mainly for tax benefits or immediate liquidity”.
Gabriel Bernardino also added that a significant part of PPRs have “returns lower than inflation”, which reduces the purchasing power of savings over time.
“Savings are not the problem”
In his intervention, the president of the ASF highlighted that the problem is not in saving, but in the way Portuguese families use their money. “Savings are not the problem; the big challenge is how we save,” he said.
According to the data presented, the savings rate of Portuguese families in the third quarter of 2025 was 12.5%, the highest value in the last two decades. Even so, he highlighted, cited by the same source, that 84% of savings are in deposits, which limits the ability to generate real income. “In Portugal, a large part of savings does not produce value and, when it is idle, it loses purchasing power due to inflation.”
Saving is not enough: there is a lack of “an ecosystem”
He argued that it is necessary to create conditions to transform savings into investment. “There is a lack of an ecosystem that transforms savings into investment,” he stated. In the same context, he mentioned that pension funds in Portugal have “only” 19.5 billion euros under management, suggesting that there is room for growth and greater scale.
Automatic enrollment in professional plans
Among the proposals, Gabriel Bernardino defended “the automatic enrollment of workers in occupational pension plans with defined contribution”, maintaining the possibility for the worker to choose not to participate. In a defined contribution fund, the contribution is pre-established, for example through a percentage of the salary, and the final pension depends on the accumulated capital and the return generated over the years.
When asked by Lusa, on the sidelines of the conference, whether this would imply that companies would be obliged to make these plans available, the person responsible replied yes, indicating that the details would have to be defined during the drafting of the law, the same source also mentions.
Legislation, scale and age-adjusted investments
At the conference, the president of the ASF considered it essential to review the legislation to allow funds geared towards this automatic enrollment model.
As he explained, it would be necessary to “adapt legislation to create occupational pension funds specifically aimed at automatic enrollment pension plans, allowing scale, lower costs and default investment options adjusted to the life cycle”. The objective, he argued, would be to reduce costs and create investment solutions that are more appropriate to the age and time horizon of each worker.
Priority for those retiring after 2042
Gabriel Bernardino suggested that the measure could be applied in phases, starting with those who will be most affected by demographic developments. From his perspective, it would make sense for the system to “start with workers who will retire after 2042”, as they are those for whom the reduction in replacement rates could have the greatest impact.
A national pension “tracker”
Furthermore, and according to , the president of the ASF defended the creation of a “national pension tracking system”, which allows each citizen to consult their retirement income forecast on a single platform, including the public and supplementary components. “Several European countries already do this and the European Commission recently recommended its implementation”, he said, pointing out this measure as a way of improving information, comparison and planning for reform.
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