Protection of members and beneficiaries of Occupational Pension Funds (OPFs)
A) Submitting a complaint to an OPF
Pursuant to Article 35 of Law 5078/2023 (Government Gazette A 211), OPFs establish and implement effective and transparent policies and procedures for handling complaints submitted by prospective members, members and beneficiaries or deferred beneficiaries of retirement benefits.
Additionally, OPFs designate the competent body responsible for investigating complaints and publish on their website information regarding the submission process, the procedure followed for examining complaints, as well as the contact details of the competent body that handles complaints.
OPFs respond to complaints without undue delay.
B) Submitting a complaint to the Bank of Greece
If you are a member, a prospective member, a beneficiary or a deferred beneficiary of retirement benefits and have already submitted a complaint to an OPF but have not received a response or the response provided was unsubstantiated, and, in any case, the issue remains unresolved, you may submit a complaint to the Bank of Greece, which will assess it exclusively within the scope of its supervisory powers. However, if no supervisory issue arises, the Bank of Greece does not have the authority to further examine the specific complaint.
Complaints falling out of the authority of the Bank of Greece are indicatively the following:
- Notifications of the occurrence of an insured event
- Requests for benefit payment
- Requests related to the interpretation of statutory terms
- Requests for information or clarifications regarding a member’s participation in an OPF
- Requests for advice or legal opinions
- Requests for mediation in dispute settlement
- Requests to forward a complaint to an OPF
The Bank of Greece has no power to mediate out-of-court settlements of private disputes that require the assessment of facts falling within the jurisdiction of civil courts.
Taking the above into consideration, you may submit a complaint to the Bank of Greece (by sending an email to teasupervision@bankofgreece.gr), attaching all relevant documents you have sent to and received from the OPF.