If Jerry Moriarty has one disappointment as he prepares to step down as CEO at Ireland’s retirement trade association, it’s that he will be retiring before the market realizes the benefits that automatic enrollment can bring to participants.

“The fact that I’m leaving the industry before AE has started is definitely disappointing,” he told Pensions & Investments in an interview ahead of his retirement from the association, whose members are responsible for €138 billion ($142.5 billion) in assets, later this month. He’s been CEO since 2012, having joined in 2007 as director of policy.

Twenty years ago, as a young executive at the Irish retirement regulator, the Pensions Authority, Moriarty worked on evaluating the case for auto enrollment in the country and how it could work.

Despite years of talk, however, the introduction of auto enrollment in Ireland has yet to come to fruition, with dates for implementation delayed.

“There’s been a definite loss of a window of opportunity there, and it’s still not clear whether it will happen,” he said. Auto enrollment is set for introduction in Ireland on Sept. 30 — a delay from a January 2025 start date and following years of conversation and expected start dates.

“That slow, slow process has been very disappointing,” Moriarty added.

Moriarty is also stepping down from his role as chair of PensionsEurope, a lobby organization representing national associations of pension funds across Europe — a role he’s held for just over one year.

That role, along with his years in the industry and vast network he’s built up, means he’s seen examples of excellence across the globe that he said could benefit Irish and other retirement systems.

“One of the things is just people having a better sense of ownership of their pension fund — something you see in a big way in Australia,” he said, referring to the MySuper standardized superannuation product that’s designed to be a low-cost default option.

Australian participants understand the value of their supers and that it’s their money for retirement, “whereas here, the thought is that (a retirement plan is) something to do with the employer — almost like ‘it’s not my money,’” Moriarty said.

The second thing he’d bring to Ireland is from Scandinavian countries, where he sees better use of technology in retirement plans and engagement. For example, participants use the equivalent of a social security number to access information on their different retirement pots — similar to the U.K.’s efforts to create a centralized pensions dashboard.

“It really helps people. I do think we need to embrace technology in a better way,” Moriarty said.

The third inspiration he’s seen is the benefit of scale in pension funds.

“I think there’s a lot to be said for collective” plans in defined contribution, he said, citing the move in the Netherlands to a collective defined contribution system from defined benefit. “I think it’s very good for members as all the evidence is that individuals make bad decisions that are not in their own interest. Whereas people that do it on their behalf (in a collective-type plan) work out better,” he said.

Ongoing challenges

One of the bigger challenges common to pension funds across Europe is “the changing nature of regulation — you’ve had something like DORA (the Digital Operational Resilience Act) which has been a really big issue in Europe. It applies not to pension funds specifically, but financial institutions (and) it doesn’t necessarily take into account the nature of many pension funds,” Moriarty said. DORA sets standards and rules in Europe for financial institutions and their information technology and cybersecurity practices.

The issue with some regulation is that the “implementation can be costly, time consuming, and probably doesn’t add a lot for the members,” and rather “pension funds get caught up in it.” On the other hand, participants want to know their money is being looked after by properly regulated entities.

Another challenge is the push by governments and regulators for patient and private capital to be pumped into their local economies.

That needs to happen “in a way that makes sense for pension funds — they can’t just invest (their assets) because government thinks it’s a good thing to do,” he said, adding that more work needs to be done to ensure there are attractive opportunities for pension funds to invest in.

The retirement industry, regulators and other stakeholders also need to “continue to talk and to try and understand each other,” he said. “It’s very easy to be constantly railing against regulation — but regulation generally starts out with the right intention. Sometimes it gets mixed up on the way … and (there needs to be) work between regulators and stakeholders in terms of finding the best way to put into practice” rules and changes.

One policy error that he pointed out was the temporary Pension Levy, introduced in Ireland in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. The Minister for Finance at the time put a 0.6% charge on pension fund assets between 2011 and 2014, with an additional 0.15% levy in 2015 — meaning a total 0.75% charge — and another 0.15% fee in 2016.

“I think that was a complete misunderstanding of the nature of pension funds and the fact that these were people’s retirement savings — a lot of funds suffered” and participants’ benefits were reduced as a result. “I hope that type of thing never happens again,” Moriarty said.

International and local recognition

Moriarty’s contributions to the industry in his roles promoting the interests of retirement plans and their participants are numerous, sources told Pensions & Investments.

“Jerry is globally recognized as an ambassador for the Irish pensions system and a leading voice in the changing landscape of the European savings industry,” a senior executive in the global investment consultant industry said. “He has forged partnerships and friendships wherever he has traveled, fostering new learning and understanding across multiple jurisdictions.”

Meeting people is one of the main things Moriarty said he’ll miss. “A lot of this type of role is (about) meeting people,” including the regulators and governments that PensionsEurope and the IAPF might be lobbying. “People are very open and helpful … There’s also a very strong sense of trying to help people, do the best for members or customers. It makes it easy to get groups of people together to collaborate, and feeling like (you’re) making a difference,” Moriarty said.

That's been particularly helpful in his role as chair of PensionsEurope, convening different countries, systems and focuses. And being Irish has also helped, he joked: "One thing Irish people can be good at is bringing people together."

And while he now names being appointed to that role as one of his top achievements, “at the time it happened, seemed almost very functional to me,” he said. He was already on the board of the group and there was a need for a new chair. “I thought, ‘I’ll do it,’ and didn’t give it a huge amount of thought. And only quite recently I’ve thought it’s quite a big deal,” he said.

The moment it hit home that his position was one of influence and importance was when he went to his “tiny village in the southwest of Ireland,” where his appointment had been covered in local newspapers. Home for Christmas, a local man “came up to me in a shop and shook my hand, and said ‘we’re so proud of you.' That makes you stop and think,” Moriarty said.

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