NETHERLANDS - Dutch pension giant ABP, at €211bn Europe's largest pension fund, has said the government's proposed new pension framework is "no attractive alternative".
ABP made the statement today, commenting on last weeks presentation by professors Arnoud Boot and Berend Jan Drijber, who have come up with the ‘General Pension Organisation' (API), which would be a new legal organisation, operating on a European scale and offering a wide range of products.
Instead, the fund prefers looking at ways to stave off regulatory pressure on its additional insurance products, as it already announced mid-March.
ABP said at the time that any implementation model must allow it to actively inform its participants of individual products, such as the new tax-friendly ‘levensloop', or life course.
The present legislation doesn't allow ABP to promote the levensloop scheme in any way. Last year, the fund was fined by pensions watchdog, De Nederlandsche Bank for overstepping the mark.
"However, our participants want and need an integral overview in order to make a balanced judgement on their income position," said ABP at the time.
At the moment, ABP is among the few remaining ‘self-administrating' pension funds, that combine policy-making and administrative activities. "The study will focus on a split between the governance and the provision of the scheme," ABP spokesman Hans ten Brinke commented to IPE.
In today's statement, ABP said: "ABP is convinced that such a level playing field can be created, that it will be possible to inform participants about their pensions and additional products, regardless of whether the participant buys the additional product."
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