EUROPE – Norway’s Oslo Pensjonsforsikring reported a return on its customer portfolio of 8.6% for 2012, up from 2.5% the year before, and set aside NOK831m (€113m) to fund increased longevity.

The scheme for employees of the capital’s council – Norway’s largest local authority pension scheme – posted a profit of NOK446m last year, up from NOK424m in 2011.

The 8.6% return on customer funds in the combined portfolio was well above the average in recent years, it said.

In a statement on its 2012 results, the scheme said: “The company and the owner’s emphasis on building strength after the financial crisis has thus provided customers with very good results.”

Noting increased longevity, the scheme said it now had to set aside money to pay pensions for more years.

“The increased reserve requirement is not known because the Financial Supervisory Authority has not yet set the new minimum tariffs and regulations on public sector pensions,” it said.

It estimated it would need funding of around NOK830m and set aside that amount in 2012.

However, the final increased reserves requirement may be somewhat higher than this, and will probably be clarified during 2013, Oslo Pensjonsforsikring said.

All asset classes produced positive returns over the year, it reported, with Norwegian shares returning 14.6% and foreign shares 17.1%.

The equities allocation rose to 16.3% during the year from 15.1%.

Convertible bonds returned 12.9%, while high-yield bonds ended the year with 19.7%. These two fixed income classes made up 3.3% and 2% of the portfolio, respectively.

Total assets rose to NOK56.2bn at the end of 2012, up from NOK50.3bn the year before.

Meanwhile, Danish labour-market pensions company PenSam Liv has accepted a DKK50,000 (€6,700) fine for failure to send annual statements to some customers.

Financial regulator Finanstilsynet said it reported the matter to the police last October.

The case concerned around 11,000 scheme members in 2009 and some 12,000 the following year who did not receive their annual pension statements from PenSam Liv.

On top of this, around 9,000 customers had to wait as many as six months for their 2008 statements.

The regulator said: “In setting the fine, the public prosecutor for serious economic crime (SØK) placed emphasis on the fact the number of policyholders who had not received the statutory information was not insignificant.”

In other news, Denmark’s Sampension reported an 11.9% investment return on with-profits pensions for 2012 and described itself as an attractive partner for potential pensions sector mergers.

Managing director Hasse Jørgensen said: “The increased transparency and the market demand for lower costs makes implementing consolidation in the industry an obvious thing to do.

“Sampension has an efficient administration system and a company structure that, coupled with our good financial results, makes us an attractive pensions partner.”

For the full 2012 year, the labour-market pension made an 11.9% return for with-profit pensions, down from 20.2% in 2011.

The return for unit-link pensions increased to 10.7% from 4%.

Contributions rose 5.9% to DKK7.8bn, with this growth primarily due to one-off contributions from customers consolidating their pension schemes with Sampension, as well as new agreements with providers.

One such agreement was with OAO-Stat (Organisations of Public Employees), bringing around 10,000 new employee pensions to Sampension.

Costs fell to 2.4% in 2012 from 2.6% in 2011.