NETHERLANDS - The €100bn healthcare scheme PFZW has said the cost for its entire pension provision and asset management comes to just 0.11% and 0.5% of assets.

Responding to MPs calling for increased transparency and cost cutting, the pension fund said it would be impossible to find a better or cheaper result.

PFZW's total cost for pension provision - including service and informing its 2.3m participants - was €120m in 2010. This is 0.11% of its entire balance, compared with a yearly income from contributions of 2.6%.

According to the scheme, the cost of its asset management - including hidden indirect costs - came to €500m in 2010, leaving a return of almost €11bn in total.

Peter Borgdorff, PFZW's director, said: "The facts show that a collective pension plan with a non-commercial pension fund generates the lowest costs and therefore delivers the best pension.

"There is no cheaper alternative for asset management, which incurs relatively most of the costs."

PFZW further made clear that it demands full and verifiable transparency from all its external asset managers.

Borgdorff added: "Together with our pension provider PGGM, we are doing out utmost to get clarity about hidden investment costs."

He urged other pension funds to cooperate with PFZW in setting up a uniform reporting system for external asset management costs.

Last week, the Financial Markets Authority, the communication supervisor, called on pension funds to be more transparent about their costs.

In a statement, the €237bn civil service scheme ABP said that an international survey by the institute Cost Effectiveness Measuring (CEM) has shown its costs were on par with similar-sized pension funds.

However, a spokeswoman at ABP said the pension fund could not yet provide the exact cost figures for 2010.

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