Former pension fund manager wins court case against Romanian regulator

The former CEO of NN Pensii, Raluca Tintoiu, who was sanctioned by the Romanian Financial Surveillance Authority (ASF) last year for having asked the fund’s contributors to question what the Government was planning with the private pensions system in Romania, has won the court case against the ASF. Tintoiu, who used to run the largest private pensions manager in Romania, was sanctioned financially and was forbidden to hold an executive position on Romania’s capital market for five years. The court recently decided to cancel the RON 100,000 (some EUR 21,000) fine imposed on Tintoiu, as well as undo the professional ban. It also ordered ASF to pay her EUR 1,000 in moral damages, local Profit.ro reported. In 2017, Tintoiu, then the CEO of NN Pensii, has sent a newsletter to all the fund’s contributors, in which it asked them to carefully watch the Government’s and the political rulers’ intentions with the private pensions Pillar 2. She was sanctioned only two days later, after Social Democrat Party (PSD) leader Liviu Dragnea said it was not true the Government was planning to nationalize the private pension funds. Tintoiu appealed the decision. Her lawyer was Cosmin Vasile, managing partner with Zamfirescu Racotzi Predoiu law firm. Soon after her sanctions, three former ministers disclosed several options “were on the table” about the private pension funds. The Government ended up lowering the salary percentage transferred to private pensions from 5.2% to 3.7% in 2018. editor@romania-insider.com