NETHERLANDS - Former Dutch health minister Hans Hoogervorst will succeed Arthur Docters van Leeuwen as chairman of the Financial Markets Authority (AFM).

Hoogervorst, former minister of health in the Balkenende-II government which fell last year, will succeed Docters van Leeuwen mid-September.

Docters van Leeuwen is due to head a new centre of excellence to promote the Netherlands as a financial centre.

He had last year announced he wanted to enter politics and would therefore not to be available for a third four-year term at the AFM, but never made it into the newly-elected cabinet.

From next year,  AFM will have the job of supervising the way pension funds and insurers communicate their indexation policies to members and clients, once pension funds and insurers are charged with supplying members with complete information on their indexation promises in second pillar schemes.

ABP, the giant Dutch pension fund, last week said it would have preferred the supervision of pension funds to be completely in the hands of the Dutch Central Bank (DNB), as it fears potential regulatory overlaps between the two regulators.