GERMANY – BVV, a €17.7bn pension fund for the German financial services industry, has appointed Helmut Aden to replace Christoph von Langsdorff on its two-member board.

BVV said Aden would join its board on May 1 where he would be responsible for insurance operations, personnel and administration. Von Langsdorff left the fund, known as a Pensionskasse in German, on December 31.

BVV said Aden formerly worked at German insurance giant Allianz, the life insurer Aspecta and as an actuary at HDI Pensionskasse, which is tied to the insurer HDI.

BVV’s other board member is Rainer Jakubowski, who is in charge of portfolio management and the board’s head.

Berlin-based BVV provides a pension to 313,000 people in Germany’s financial services industry. It also has 78,000 pensioners.

Despite positive equity markets, the fund said it made no significant changes to its asset allocation during 2005. BVV invests 84% of its holdings in fixed income, 4% of which are corporate bonds. Another 10% is invested in equities. Of the remaining portion, 5% is in real estate and 1% in hedge funds.

Jakubowski told IPE in the spring of 2005 that the pension fund would consider increasing its equity exposure to a maximum of 20% and its hedge fund exposure to 3-4%.

In 2004, BVV had a return on assets of 4.5%. It has not disclosed its return for 2005.