EUROPE - Allianz will launch a new pan-European pension fund offering later this year, the German insurer and financial service provider announced today.

In an interview on the firm's website, chief executive Michael Diekmann said: "Later in the year, we will launch a new pan-European pensions offer: I can't reveal any details yet but this is something our corporate customers have been wanting for years."

The move follows Allianz's conversion into a Societas Europaea, the legal form of the European Company created by the European Council in 2001, last Friday, signalling a broad "cultural change" at the group according Diekmann.

Only last week, Allianz Global Investors launched a new range of investment funds designed for distribution across the whole of Europe.

Furthermore, Diekman was quoted as saying: "We have also just launched a new index-linked life insurance product for the entire CEE region. On an even more global scale, a unit-linked life insurance product developed by Allianz Life in the US was successfully rolled out in Germany."

At the end of 2005 Allianz Group had more than €1.26trn euros in assets under management. Of this, €743bn were assets managed for third parties.