NETHERLANDS – The €11bn doctors scheme SBA Artsenpensioenfondsen has announced its decision to become a private limited company - Doctors Pension Funds Services BV.

The development is due to the internal upgrades demanded by the new FTK regulatory framework, and was approved by the board on 24 May.

“Exposure of the company from this time on will be regulated by several service level agreements,” said chief executive Bert Bos, who was also chief executive of SBA,
the Pension Fund for General Practitioners and Medical Specialists.

The new company will continue to represent and administer pension funds for general practitioners (SPH) and medical specialists (SPMS). However, SPH and SPMS will be shareholders in the new company which represents 24,000 members.

The company will also fulfil the role of investment manager for both funds.

“It is important to emphasize that the two funds each have the option to have their own investment policy, and they each have their own separate contract,” said Bos.

“On the investment side, we are hoping for high performance. And on the participants side we are hoping to deliver a high quality service.”

Bos is currently fulfilling the final stages of an “upgrading and reorganising” process that started in the last quarter of 2004.

SBA went through a management shake-up late last year which saw three of its senior executives leave in the course of three months.

Last month SBA equity manager Els van Muylder became a credit analyst at the corporate bond house F&C Asset Management.