Portugal's Pension Supervisor Backs Signing Workers Up to Workplace Pensions by Default, Hoping for a Plan Around March 2027

Portugal's insurance and pension-fund supervisor wants workers to be signed up to a workplace pension by default, keeping the right to leave, and hopes to put a concrete plan on the table next year. Gabriel Bernardino, president of the Autoridade de Supervisão de Seguros e Fundos de Pensões (ASF, the Insurance and Pension Funds Supervisory Authority), set out the idea on Tuesday 27 October as the ASF launched a new observatory on retirement saving.

What the ASF is working on

In a speech published by the ASF, Bernardino named three priorities that the supervisor recommends to the State. The first is a pension tracking system, so each person can see in one place what they can expect from the public pension, any workplace scheme and their own savings. The second is automatic enrolment in occupational pension funds, with contributions shared between worker and employer and "the freedom to leave" always preserved. The default investment would follow a life-cycle strategy, taking more risk for younger members and less as retirement nears. The third is a clearer, more comparable Plano Poupança-Reforma (PPR, the tax-favoured retirement savings plan), backed by stable tax incentives that favour lower earners.

Speaking to reporters afterwards, Bernardino said the ASF has discussed the matter with the Government and hopes to present "a concrete proposal" during 2027, "perhaps around the end of the first quarter", for introducing auto-enrolment gradually, Lusa reported. Auto-enrolment "is not forcing people to save", he said, but a way to "beat inertia".

What is not decided

Nothing is settled. The ASF can advise but not legislate. There is no draft, and no word on who would be covered, how much would be paid in, by whom, or what an opt-out would involve. Any scheme would be for the Government to take up.

The idea follows a European Commission package of 20 November 2025. Its Recommendation on pension tracking systems, pension dashboards and auto-enrolment is not binding: the Commission calls it best practice that countries "can adapt as they see fit". It cites Ireland, Italy and Poland as countries bringing in or running similar systems. It also proposed revising the rules on occupational funds and on the Pan-European Personal Pension Product (PEPP), an EU-wide personal pension, so that a PEPP could serve as an auto-enrolment scheme where national law allows. Both were sent to the European Parliament and the Council as legislative proposals.

Where retirement saving stands now

The ASF's survey of 801 adults, carried out by phone between December 2025 and February 2026 with a 3.5 point margin of error, found that 45 percent are preparing financially for retirement: 28 percent hold a long-term retirement product and 17 percent save without one. The other 55 percent are not actively saving, most often because they lack the money. Only 17 percent of single adults aged 18 to 34 hold such a product. Among retirees, 89 percent rely mainly on their Social Security pension and 61 percent say their standard of living fell after retiring.

Supplementary pensions remain small. Occupational pension funds had 242,289 members at the end of 2025, the ASF's observatory report says, and all pension funds managed about 20.5 billion euros in June 2026. Today's voluntary options include PPRs, individual membership of open pension funds and the State's own Regime Público de Capitalização (Public Capitalisation Scheme, sold as certificados de reforma) run by the Social Security's capitalisation fund manager, IGFCSS. The Brief has reported on the size of Portugal's public pensions and on record demand for State savings certificates.

The next step is the ASF's proposal, which Bernardino hopes to have ready around the end of March 2027.