(January 9, 2014) — The Dutch central bank is getting tough with pension funds who have failed to submit their asset management costs, threatening a €1 million fine if they do not comply.
The Financieele Dagblad newspaper reported on Thursday that more than a quarter of the Netherlands’ pension funds had failed to submit their costings on time.
“This is unacceptable,” Olaf Sleijpen, head of the bank’s pension supervision department, told the newspaper.
“Pension funds need to have proper insight into the costs, otherwise they cannot decide if certain investments are desirable or not.”
He added that the problems centred on smaller funds which held less weight with their asset managers, making it harder to obtain figures from them.
Elsewhere in the Netherlands, banking giant ING announced it has reached an agreement in principle over the future funding of its Dutch defined benefit pension plan.
Working alongside trade unions (CNV Dienstenbond, FNV Finance, and De Unie), the ING Pension Fund, the Central Works Council, and the Association of Retired ING Employees will transfer all future funding and indexation obligations to the ING Pension Fund.
The fund has €18 billion in assets, and looks after the retirement money of 70,000 current and former employees of ING. Members have also stopped accruing new pension benefits as of the start of this year, and will be instead offered access to one of two new defined contribution plans—one for the insurance employees and one for the banking staff.
Chief executive Ralph Hamers said in a statement: “This agreement represents a significant milestone in the separation of Bank and Insurance as we prepare for the base case IPO of ING Insurance planned for this year.
“The agreement will greatly reduce the current volatility in our equity and will further simplify the group. It also provides for a solid financial future for our employees and pensioners as the ING Pension Fund will be well-funded.”
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