NETHERLANDS – Roughly half of Dutch pension funds' mandatory financial-crisis plans are "sub-standard", according to a study by regulators De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) and the Financial Markets Authority (AFM).

The watchdogs called for action and said improvements to the plans should focus on priorities for the measures that schemes would take in a crisis, as well as on the moment when rights cuts would be implemented.

They said many pension funds had failed to fully consider how they might deal with various "calamities", or how they might keep their participants abreast of their actions.

Further, the DNB and AFM said Dutch schemes should be more forthcoming on how they would factor in a balanced approach to providing pensions across the generations.

Dutch pension funds have been required to draw up and submit financial-crisis plans since the DNB concluded that many of them would be unprepared for any future crisis.

It said the plans should provide clarity to both the pension funds and their participants about any measures they would take or procedures they would put in place.

The DNB and the AFM categorised just 10% of the crisis plans as 'good' or 'excellent', and deemed 40% of plans 'sufficient'.

They considered the quality of 15% of the plans to be 'poor'.