Reforming Greece’s Second Pension Pillar: New Opportunities for Employers and Employees

On 29.06.2026, the Ministry of Labor presented the new draft law on the second pillar of insurance, the so-called occupational insurance. Until recently, the second pillar of insurance mainly concerned the voluntary establishment and operation of Occupational Pension Funds by enterprises and organizations, requiring at least 100 members for their establishment, of which at least 20 founding members and at least 80 candidate members. The new draft law provides for the creation of new products and options in occupational insurance and simplifies procedures.

In particular, the new draft law introduces the Open Occupational Pension Funds, in order to facilitate access to occupational insurance for smaller enterprises and freelancers. Open Occupational Pension Funds will be licensed by the Bank of Greece and will be able to accept new businesses, collective bodies and trade unions without prior supervisory approval. Open-ended pension funds will not require at least 100 members (founding and candidate) as required for the establishment of an Occupational Pension Fund (OPF), they will operate as “umbrella” funds while minimizing the management costs involved in the operation of a pension fund.

Based on the new framework being promoted, the statute of the pension fund is now separated from the existence of individual pension plans that it manages. An OPF will be able to create or modify a pension plan for an already participating financing company by decision of its Board of Directors without the need to amend its statute, as was the case before, while the possibility of appointing members of the OPF Supervisory Board from external members who will have scientific expertise and guarantees of reliability is provided.

The aim is for OPFs to be able to operate more quickly, more efficiently and with transparent procedures without reducing supervision and protection of the insured. In this context, the governance of OPFs is determined and in particular the critical functions that they must absolutely perform, such as actuarial, risk management and internal control, and the possibility of outsourcing the functions of OPFs under the supervision of the Bank of Greece is provided.

According to the presentation of the Ministry of Labor, the draft law will also provide for the:

• Rationalization of the tax framework, improving tax incentives by decoupling from years of insurance and linking them to the age of the insured,
• Abolition of the tax penalty for those employees who decide to enter occupational insurance at an advanced age,
• Provision of health programs by the OPFs under the condition that the relevant risk is fully covered by an insurance or reinsurance company or by a health service provider through a fixed cost per capita contract and insurance of family members of the directly insured.
• Creation of a new insurance product, namely the Group Occupational Retirement Insurance Product (OAPES), that forms part of the second insurance pillar, whic will be issued by insurance companies and will provide equivalent protection of the rights of the insured with the OPF programs, will be under the strict supervision of the Bank of Greece and will be governed by the same strict supervisory framework and the same favorable tax incentives that apply to OPFs. In this way, a more complete and competitive framework is created, with uniform rules of supervision, protection and tax treatment that provide various options to businesses and employees.

– Portability of the rights of the insured free of charge and under the supervision of the Bank of Greece, so that a change of job or professional status does not lead to the loss or weakening of vested rights, and the possibility of transferring entire pension plans from OPF to OPF, from OPF to OAPES, from OAPES to OPF and from OAPES to OAPES.

• Horizontal enhancement of transparency by establishing obligations for OAPES to register in a public register, rules for proper product distribution, prevention of conflicts of interest, and obligation to periodically inform the insured about the progress of their investments.
• Protection of the unemployed with the possibility of remaining on occupational insurance even during the loss of their professional status.
• Upgrading the investment framework of professional insurance product providers by setting a maximum investment limit per product, based on the need to diversify the investment portfolio and the possibility of creating an investment product depending on the specific profile of the professional group to which it is addressed.
• Redefining the financing company in order to protect the rights of the insured and to legally ensure its liability.
• Right to information of the insured for their investment and strengthening of the transparency and of the supervisory role of the Bank of Greece through standardized procedures and forms.

The new framework for Occupational Insurance, according to the Ministry of Labor, manages to combine benefits for both insured and businesses as well as for the country’s economy.