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Case Study

The Pan-European Personal Pension Product (PEPP)

A focus on technology, innovation and engagement, with contributions from Dr. Francesco Briganti, Jorik van Zanden and Gianluca Mauro.

The Pan-European Personal Pension Product (PEPP) represents the EU's boldest move to create a unified, digital and portable pension system for a mobile, modern population. Designed for private savers and supported by a strict regulatory cap and dynamic cross-border management, PEPP aims to solve decades-old fragmentation in Europe's retirement landscape.

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Three key insights

  1. 01

    Portable by design, stalled by tax

    PEPP creates a unified, cross-border pension wrapper with digital onboarding and portability, yet unequal tax treatment across member states has blocked adoption and excluded most workplace savers.

  2. 02

    Technology enables, but behaviour blocks

    Remote KYC, automated advice and cross-border tracking services are built in, yet member inertia and cultural expectations that someone else will handle retirement remain the deeper barriers.

  3. 03

    Three levers for scale

    Tax parity, AI-driven personalised defaults and seamless API integration between payroll, tax and pension platforms are the critical moves needed to turn PEPP's design promise into real uptake.

Authors

Andrew Mugoya

Innovation Consultant, Founder and Principal at Strawpath

Songül Arslan

Financial Economics Specialist

Contributors

  • Dr. Francesco Briganti

    Secretary General, Cross Border Benefits Alliance-Europe (CBBA-Europe)

  • Jorik van Zanden

    EU Pensions Expert and Consultant

  • Gianluca Mauro

    AI entrepreneur and speaker, Founder of AI Academy

“The PEPP is a federal product designed at the European level and distributed across the EU without major local adaptations.”
Dr. Francesco Briganti
“A mobile continent needs a portable pension wrapper; the PEPP design creates a real solution for the modern European workforce.”
Dr. Francesco Briganti
“The PEPP was basically made to create a system that other countries could adopt to have safe investments. It should be easy to understand and transparent. Those are the three underlying assumptions.”
Jorik van Zanden
“If you can solve targeted, accessible advice, value for money service with some kind of advice, also accessible for lower middle income, that's the golden target.”
Jorik van Zanden
“AI has strong potential to make pension engagement more personalised. There are, however, risks. This does not mean such systems should not be built; it means they must be developed ethically from day one, with fairness and transparency embedded in their design.”
Gianluca Mauro

Download the full case study for the underlying interviews, the complete PEPP mechanics and the detailed recommendations.

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