RETAINED EARNINGS ON MUTUAL FUNDS, INSURANCE CORPORATIONS AND PENSION FUNDS

SNA/M1.06/29.1

Fourth meeting of the Advisory Expert Group on National Accounts
30 January – 8 February 2006, Frankfurt


Issue 42
Retained earnings of mutual funds,
insurance companies and pension funds










RETAINED EARNINGS ON MUTUAL FUNDS,
INSURANCE CORPORATIONS AND PENSION FUNDS


by Eurostat and the
European Central Bank Directorate General Statistics

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UPDATE OF THE 1993 SNA – ISSUE NO 42
Retained earnings on
mutual funds, insurance corporations and pension funds
Background paper prepared for the e-discussion of the AEG on National Accounts
by Eurostat and the European Central Bank Directorate General Statistics
Executive Summary
In July 2005, the ECB and Eurostat proposed to the AEG an extension of the treatment currently
applicable to the retained earnings of insurance corporations, pension funds and direct investment
enterprises to the retained earnings of investment funds. The AEG unanimously supported the
proposal, but requested a number of clarifications with regard to (i) the exact recording of the
property income flow; (ii) the definition of retained earnings and (iii) an elaboration of the
parallel with insurance transactions. In dealing with these points, the AEG explicitly asked for
clarifications on the role of holding gains (and losses) in the attribution of income to shareholders
and on other definitional aspects.
This paper deals with these issues by analysing the current treatment applicable to these three
different cases in the 1993 SNA, the 1995 ESA and the BPM5. In reviewing current standards, the
paper recommends excluding holding gains and losses arising from investment funds’
investments from the property income to be attributed to investment funds’ shareholders, which
would be exclusively based on the net operating surplus of investment funds. Should a more
general review of the concept of income be finally deemed necessary, the special case of property
income generated by investment funds and other collective investment schemes could be re-
visited in a broader context beyond the current SNA review process.
The paper makes a number of proposals: recording all property income generated by investment
funds (comprising both distributed dividends and retained earnings) on an accruals basis as if they
were distributed to shareholders under a single (new) property income category with two sub
items:
D.46 Property income attributed to holders of investment funds.

D.461 Dividends distributed to investment fund shareholders

D.462 Retained earnings attributed to investment fund shareholders
Some other adjustments would be necessary in D.42 [to be renamed as “Distributed income of
corporations (excluding investment funds)”] and in (A)F5 “Shares and other equity” [to be split
into (A)F5 “Equity” and (A)F6 “Investment fund shares/units”].1
Following these proposals, the property income entries recorded under D.462 should be offset by
financial account entries under F.6.
Finally, with a view to clearly defining the scope of application of the proposed change, it would
be necessary to provide an explicit definition of investment funds. This is outlined in papers on
the classification and terminology of financial assets and liabilities and of financial corporations
to be discussed during the forthcoming fourth AEG meeting in January/February 2006.2

1 The codes used in this note for financial transactions (F) and for financial balance sheet positions (AF) are those as
proposed in the paper on “Classification and terminology of financial assets and liabilities in the updated SNA” to be
presented and discussed during the forthcoming fourth AEG meeting and also used in the table of the annex.
2 See the papers as mentioned in footnote 1 and “Classification and terminology of financial corporations in the
updated SNA.”

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Introduction
1.
In July 2005, the AEG considered how to treat retained earnings on mutual funds and other
collective investment schemes following a paper presented by the ECB and Eurostat. At present,
the 1993 SNA follows the general rule that retained earnings of an entity are considered as income
and saving of the entity, rather than of the owner. The only exceptions to this general rule apply
to life insurance corporations, pension funds and (foreign) direct investment companies, for
which imputed transactions are recorded as distribution of income to policyholders, beneficiaries,
and direct investors (respectively), with offsetting entries in the financial account, as if the
earnings were distributed and then reinvested in the companies.
2.
The ECB/Eurostat paper3 proposed extending this treatment to investment funds, inter alia
on the grounds of extending consistency across collective investment schemes. The outcome of
the discussion can be summarised as follows:
• The AEG unanimously supported the principle of recording retained earnings of
investment funds in a similar way to income attributed to insurance policy holders
• The AEG requested further clarification on (i) the exact recording of the property income
flow; (ii) the definition of retained earnings and (iii) an elaboration of the parallel with
insurance transactions. In dealing with these points, the AEG explicitly asked for
clarification on the role of holding gains (and losses) in the attribution of income to
shareholders.
• In addition, the AEG considered that the definition needs to be further refined and the
terminology to be adopted for the unit and the instrument should be re-examined.
3.
These aspects should be reconsidered by the AEG through an electronic discussion before
its January 2006 meeting.
4.
With a view to contributing to this discussion, the present paper is in three sections.
Section 1 deals with the current statistical treatment in the System of National Accounts
(1993 SNA), in the European System of Accounts (1995 ESA) and in the IMF Balance of
Payments Manual, 5th edition (BPM5) of retained earnings in the case of insurance corporations,
pension funds, (foreign) direct investment enterprises and investment funds. Section 2 tackles the
issue of how to define retained earnings in the three cases, in particular, whether holding gains
and losses should be part of the income attributed to shareholders/policy holders. Section 3
presents some proposals with regard to the instrument breakdown that could accompany the

3 Ref. “Retained earnings of mutual funds” (SNA/M1.05/17.2)

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modification of the current methodology applicable to retained earnings of investment funds and
some other definitional issues that are part of the proposal.
1.
Current statistical treatment in the 1993 SNA, the 1995 ESA and the
BPM5
5.
As mentioned in the introduction, in the 1993 SNA the general rule is that retained earnings
of an entity are recorded as income and saving of the entity and not of its owners. The only
exceptions to this general rule at present refer to life insurance corporations, pension funds and
foreign direct investment companies.
Insurance corporations and pension funds
6.
According to paragraph 7.124 of the 1993 SNA, “Insurance technical reserves are invested
by insurance enterprises in various ways. They are commonly used to purchase financial assets,
land or buildings. The insurance enterprises receive property income from the financial assets and
land, and earn net operating surpluses from the renting or leasing of residential and other
buildings. The total of the primary incomes received in this way from the investment of insurance
technical reserves is described as investment income. It does not, of course, include any income
received from the investment of insurance enterprises' own assets. However, as the technical
reserves are assets of the insurance policyholders, the investment income receivable by insurance
enterprises must be shown in the accounts as being paid by the insurance enterprises to the
policyholders. The income payable by insurance enterprises to policyholders in this way is
described as property income attributed to insurance policyholders. However, this income is
retained by the insurance enterprises in practice. It is therefore treated as being paid back to the
insurance enterprises in the form of premium supplements that are additional to actual premiums
payable under the terms of the insurance policies. […]”
7.
In the 1995 ESA, the attribution of income to insurance policy holders is fully consistent
with what is stated above (ref. paragraphs 4.68 to 4.71). The BPM5 also recommends following a
similar methodology.4
Foreign direct investment
8.
According to paragraph 7.120 of the 1993 SNA, “Actual distributions may be made out of
the entrepreneurial income of direct foreign investment enterprises in the form of dividends or
withdrawals of income from quasi-corporations. The payments made in these ways to foreign

4 According to paragraph 274 of the BPM5, “[…] Also, in principle, income is imputed to households
from net equity in life insurance reserves and pension funds and included indistinguishably under
other investment.”

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direct investors are recorded in the accounts of the SNA and in the balance of payments statistics
of the IMF as international flows of property income. However, both systems also require the
saving or retained earnings of a direct foreign investment enterprise to be treated as if they were
distributed and remitted to foreign direct investors in proportion to their ownership of the equity
of the enterprise and then reinvested by them. In other words, two additional entries are required
in the accounts of the enterprises and their foreign owners, one of which is the imputed
remittance of retained earnings, while the other is the imputed reinvestment of those
earnings. The imputed remittance of these retained earnings is classified in the System as a form
of distributed income that is separate from, and additional to, any actual payments of dividends or
withdrawals of income from quasi-corporations.”
9.
The methodology addressed by the 1995 ESA (ref. 4.59) and the BPM5 is fully consistent
with the above-described treatment. Furthermore, paragraph 278 of the BPM5 provides a precise
definition of reinvested earnings: “Reinvested earnings comprise direct investors’ shares—in
proportion to equity held—of (i) earnings that foreign subsidiaries and associated enterprises do
not distribute as dividends and (ii) earnings that branches and other unincorporated enterprises
do not remit to direct investors. (If that part of earnings is not identified, all branch earnings are
considered, by convention, to be distributed.) Thus, reinvested earnings may be calculated as the
entrepreneurial income (net operating surplus) of the direct investment enterprise, plus any
income or current transfers receivable, minus any income or current transfers payable. The latter
include any current taxes payable on income, wealth, etc.”
Current treatment of retained earnings of investment funds in the 1995 ESA
10.
According to paragraph 4.49 of the 1995 ESA, “The following are also treated as interest:
[…] (b) interest received by mutual funds (see paragraph 2.51.b), from the investments they have
made, and which is assigned to shareholders, even if it is capitalized.”
11.
Additionally, paragraph 5.141 includes among the components of mutual funds shares
(F.52): “[…] (b) Property income received by mutual funds, net of a part of management costs,
and assigned to shareholders, even though it is not distributed, has a counterpart entry in the
financial account under mutual funds shares. The effect is that property income is reinvested.”
12.
As previously mentioned, neither the 1993 SNA nor the BPM5 record under property
income any retained earnings by investment funds, but just the dividends distributed by the
investment funds to shareholders.
13.
In comparing the treatment of income attributed to insurance policy holders and foreign
direct investors in the 1993 SNA and the 1995 ESA treatment of retained earnings of investment
funds, there is a significantly distinctive feature: according to the 1995 ESA, income attributed to

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shareholders (i.e. accruing on investment funds’ liabilities) is recorded under the same instrument
as income on the investment funds’ investments (i.e. accruing on investment funds’ assets),
namely as income on debt or income on equity, as appropriate. Hence, the imputed property
income transaction from investment funds to households is recorded under either D.41 (interest)
or D.421 (dividends), which may create consistency problems with the original investment of the
funds’ shareholders (recorded under F5 “Shares and other equity”, irrespective of the
instruments in which investment funds ultimately put their money).
2.
The components of retained earnings in the different cases and the role
of holding gains and losses
14.
Generally speaking, the System of National Accounts (like the international/external
accounts) is an integrated framework in which changes in stocks need to be justified via either
transactions or other changes in the asset accounts, which can be further split into holding gains
and losses/valuation changes (due to price or exchange rate changes) and other changes in
volume.
15.
In the case under review, establishing the borderline between transactions and other
changes in the asset accounts may become slightly more complicated as it does not only affect a
second level investment generating income but also profits and losses of an intermediate
company (the investment fund), which is recognised in the accounts as a separate institutional
unit. A review of some relevant parts in the current standards with regard to the three cases
considered so far may shed some light on how this issue is being considered at present.
Retained earnings of insurance corporations and pension funds
16.
The manuals are perhaps not explicit enough on the components which should be
included/excluded from the income to be attributed to policy holders. The references of the 1993
SNA quoted in the previous section mention “property income from the financial assets and land,
and earn net operating surpluses from the renting or leasing of residential and other buildings”
and explicitly exclude “any income received from the investment of insurance enterprises' own
assets”.
17.
In particular, with regard to holding gains and losses that could come up out of the
investments of insurance technical reserves, it appears from what is stated above that they should
not be considered as part of the income attributable to policyholders (not being part of the net
operating surplus).

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Reinvested earnings of direct investment enterprises
18.
Paragraph 7.122 of the 1993 SNA describes in a more or less explicit way the contents of
retained earnings of the foreign direct investment enterprises:
• the operating surplus of the direct foreign investment enterprise
plus
• any property incomes or current transfers receivable
minus
• any property incomes or current transfers payable, including actual remittances to foreign
direct investors and any current taxes payable on the income, wealth, etc., of the direct
foreign investment enterprise.
Thus, the retained earnings are equal to the entrepreneurial income of the foreign direct
investment enterprise, plus or minus any current transfers receivable or payable,
including any current taxes on income, wealth, etc. payable.
19.
With regard to the way how reinvested earnings are measured, paragraph 285 of the BPM5
provides the following description: “Direct investment earnings are measured on the basis of
current operating performance. Operational earnings represent income from normal operations
of the enterprise and do not include any realized or unrealized holding (capital) gains or
losses arising from valuation changes, such as inventory write-offs; gains or losses on plant and
equipment from the closure of part all of a business; write-offs of intangibles, including goodwill,
because of unusual events or developments during the period; write-offs of research and
development expenditures; losses on the write-offs of bad debts or on expropriation without
compensation; abnormal provisions for losses on long-term contracts; exchange-rate-related gains
and losses. Unrealized gains or losses resulting from the revaluation of fixed assets, investments,
and liabilities and any realized gains or losses resulting from the disposal of assets or liabilities
should be excluded from direct investment earnings; that is, gains should not be added in and
losses should not be deducted. In addition, valuation changes resulting from unforeseen
obsolescence, catastrophes, and depletion of natural resources are treated as holding losses at the
times that the decreases in values actually occur. Because data for many countries are available
only on an all-inclusive basis, when holding gains and losses and other extraordinary income are
included in reported earnings, those countries that report earnings on either an operating basis or
all-inclusive basis should collect and publish supplementary information on holding gains and
losses and other extraordinary items. This practice would enhance international comparability for
both flows and stock positions.” [added emphasis]
20.
In regard to holding gains and losses arising from the investments of direct investment
enterprises, paragraph 609 of the Balance of Payments Compilation Guide reads as follows: “As
previously noted, the calculation of reinvested earnings should not include reinvested earnings

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derived from capital items, even if these are included in enterprise profit and loss statements. For
example, if an enterprise sold an asset on which it made a windfall profit—that is, the sale price
of the asset was greater than the purchase price—a direct investor’s share of that profit should
be shown in the BOP as a distribution of capital and the subscription of new capital and not
included as part of the calculation of reinvested earnings.” [added emphasis]
Should holding gains and losses arising from investment funds’ investment be included or
excluded from the property income attributed to investment funds’ shareholders?
21.
The current version of the manuals advocates the exclusion of holding gains and losses
resulting from the investments of the institution concerned (insurance corporations, pension funds
or foreign direct investment enterprises). As stated in the previous section, the current treatment
addressed by the 1995 ESA to these instruments also excludes holding gains and losses from the
retained earnings of investment funds. According to paragraph 4.49 of the 1995 ESA, “The
following are also treated as interest: […] (b) interest received by mutual funds (see paragraph
2.51.b), from the investments they have made, and which is assigned to shareholders, even if it is
capitalized. It excludes holding gains or losses on financial instruments belonging to unit
trusts, which are not recorded as property income.” [added emphasis]
22.
Against this background, at this stage on conceptual grounds5 it seems appropriate to
exclude any holding gains and losses resulting from the investment funds’ investments from the
income attributable to shareholders, which would be exclusively based on the net operating
surplus of investment funds.
23.
At a later stage, the question could be part of a broader discussion, in particular of the
definition of income itself, for which the IMF Balance of Payments Committee had suggested to
the AEG the creation of a working group that could work on the issue beyond the publication of
the next edition of both the SNA and the BPM. Depending on the AEG’s views concerning the
appropriateness of participating in this group, the special case of property income generated by
investment funds and other collective investment schemes could then also be re-visited in such a
broader context. The creation of this group should nevertheless not impede the consideration of
this consistency issue with regard to retained earnings of investment funds in the current SNA
revision process.

5 Practical problems to make the distinction between income and holding gains and losses from the books of the funds
may arise, especially resulting from the generalisation of the new international accounting standards.

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3.
Specific aspects of the proposal and definitional issues
The proposed new income category
24.
The joint ECB/Eurostat paper presented in July 2005 included a proposal to make an
imputation to investment funds’ shareholders of retained earnings of investment funds along the
following lines: all investment funds’ earnings (comprising both distributed dividends and
retained earnings) would be recorded as if they were distributed to shareholders under a single
(new) property income category: D.46 Property income attributed to holders of investment funds.
This would imply a difference with regard to the current treatment in the 1995 ESA (as stated in
the previous section).
An additional subdivision would be as follows:
D.461 Dividends distributed to investment fund shareholders
D.462 Retained earnings attributed to investment fund shareholders
25.
Additionally, the current category D.42 would be renamed as follows: D.42 Distributed
income of corporations (excluding investment funds)
26.
This proposal implicitly points to the need to separately identify investment funds’ shares
in the financial account and financial instrument classification for the sake of consistency. This
could be achieved by introducing an additional split in (A)F5 Shares and other equity along the
following lines:
(A)F5 Equity [which could be further subdivided into (A)F51 quoted shares; (A)F52
unquoted shares; and (A)F53 other equity]
(A)F6 Investment fund shares/units
Recording
27.
Following these proposals, the property income entries recorded under D462 should be
recorded on an accruals basis and should be offset by corresponding financial account entries
under F6 as if the retained earnings were actually distributed to shareholders and immediately
reinvested in the fund.
Definition of investment funds
28.
Since the recommended treatment for the recording of income on investment funds is
different from that applicable to income on other equity investments, it seems necessary to
provide a clear definition of the scope of application of this methodology. For this reason, it is

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proposed that the new SNA includes an explicit definition of investment funds as outlined in the
paper on the “Classification and terminology of financial corporations.”6

Questions

1) Do you agree to exclude holding gains or losses arising from investment funds’
financial investment from property income attributed to holders of assets in these
funds resulting from the net operating surplus of investment funds? At a later
stage, the question could be part of a broader discussion, in particular of the
definition of income itself, beyond the publication of the next edition of the SNA.
2) Do you agree that property income attributed to holders of investment funds on an
accruals basis should be recorded as a new property income category ‘property
income attributed to holders of investment funds’ which should be further split
into ‘dividends distributed to investment fund shareholders’ and ‘retained
earnings attributed to investment fund shareholders’?
3) Do you agree that the counter-entry of ‘retained earnings attributed to investment
fund shareholders’ should be recorded as a new financial asset category
‘investment fund shares/units’?

6 These definitions have also been elaborated in the context of the work undertaken by the ESCB to develop OFI
statistics.

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