NETHERLANDS - The €42m industry-wide pension fund for the Dutch industrial-cleaning sector (Orsima) has selected A&O Pension Services as its new pensions provider.

Under the terms of the deal, Rijswijk-based A&O will administer Orsima’s pension plan, its arrangements for early retirement (VUT-fonds) and its social fund.

Until recently, Orsima had contracted out administration to pensions provider Syntrus Achmea.

But Gertjan Pieterson, chairman at Orsima, said the scheme had been looking for an administrator that was “up to date” and “not too expensive”.

Rudolf de Soet, director at A&O, said Orsima would get a “good price/quality ratio” and “tailor-made implementation”.

Orsima’s coverage ratio, which fell by 13.4 percentage points over the course of 2011, was 101.5% at year-end.

The pension fund has approximately 3,350 participants and 37 affiliated companies for industrial cleaning, ships maintenance, port services and asbestos removal.

Its pension plan is a collective defined contribution scheme based on average salary.

The scheme’s pension contribution is 19.5% of the pensionable salary, and the yearly pension accrual is 1.75%.

A&O Pension Services implements pension plans for 179,000 participants.