NETHERLANDS - Dutch pensions provider and asset manager MN is consulting its shareholders about possible options for improving the company’s capital position and securing “long-term continuity and necessary innovation”.

The board said the issue had grown in importance since the Dutch pensions regulator rejected a €10m internal loan to subsidiary Mn Services Asset Management.

The subsidiary had more than €21m in assets at the end of last year.

In its annual report, MN said the loan had been transformed into “directly available assets”, without limits on its availability, rather than a loan under restrictions.

Separately, said it had fine-tuned the investment process for its clients - such as the €42bn metal scheme PMT and the €29bn metal scheme PME - by making investments that specifically matched customers’ targets and risks.

MN said it was also refining client reporting to give customers greater insight into the effect of policy choices, adding that it had fully separated fiduciary and asset management last year.

The pensions provider said the integration of new process management standard ISAE3402 had formed part of the upgrade of its enterprise risk management system.

It has also increased the number of staff in its risk management department from six to 21 since 2010.

MN said it was exploring the possibility of launching a PPI pensions vehicle, as well as looking into a number of defined contribution arrangements.

However, it added that either option would depend entirely on the pension arrangements concluded by the social partners of employers and employees.

MN provides pension services for almost 2m workers, pensioners and deferred participants affiliated with 40,000 employers.

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