Miranda Schoutsen
- Country Report
The Netherlands: Get ready for inflation
With liquidity sloshing around the financial system, inflation may not be a matter of ‘if’, but ‘when’. Miranda Schoutsen asks whether real assets will help protect fragile nominal pensions from the relentless erosion of value
- News
PGGM named lead plaintiff in class action against HP
GLOBAL – Lawsuit concerns $8.8bn writedown related to UK software company Autonomy.
- Country Report
The Netherlands: Mixed views on risk factors
Allocation based on risk factors rather than traditional asset categories is gaining traction, says Miranda Schoutsen, but some investors are wondering whether the old ways are not better
- Country Report
The Netherlands: Big is beautiful – up to a point
Mariska van der Westen and Miranda Schoutsen report on the growing trend of Dutch pension fund consolidation. What is the optimum size for a pension scheme?
- Country Report
The Netherlands: Each to its own
Last year, social affairs and labour ministry director general Maarten Camps hinted that the new FTK would take on a dual character. He talks to Miranda Schoutsen about the form the framework will take
- News
Dutch pension trade bodies submit proposals for 'new' FTK
NETHERLANDS – Pension fund trade bodies have called on the next Dutch government to make the pension fund system financially sound, with "no concealed shift of current losses to the future".
- News
PGGM proposes equity cutback for engagement reasons
NETHERLANDS - PGGM, the pension asset manager for healthcare and related industries, will suggest to clients including the PFZW health and welfare pension fund that they invest in fewer companies or adopt an exclusion policy.
- Country Report
Netherlands: In practice
Both the Frijns Committee and the DNB, the Dutch supervisor, have been clear in their assessments: pension funds need to bolster their governance in order to bring asset management and risk management more under control. Mariksa van der Westen and Miranda Schoutsen ask what pension funds are doing to meet ...
- Country Report
Netherlands: Pensions should be a 'good deal'
Miranda Schoutsen spoke to Kees Goudswaard, the author of the report ‘A Strong Second Pillar’
- News
Dutch minister 'complicating pension mergers'
[16:00 CEST 22-10] NETHERLANDS - The Netherlands could face a raft of pension mergers following the implementation of a new law, reports our Dutch sister publication IPN.
- Country Report
Fiduciary management moves into a new phase
Miranda Schoutsen spoke to five providers about changes in fiduciary services, re-orientation and a changing of the guards
- News
DNB: Dutch pension funds underestimate risk
[11:50 CEST 18-09] NETHERLANDS – The pensions supervisor De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) says that a number of pension funds are underestimating the risk they are exposed to in their investment policies. This was made public at the yearly gathering of pension funds managers organised by DNB, held yesterday.
- News
Pension funds criticise PwC's Dutch costs study
[16:00 CEST 25-06] NETHERLANDS - The trade bodies of Dutch pension funds have criticised the findings of a comparative study by PrciewaterhouseCoopers on administration costs of collective pension schemes by insurers and pension funds.
- News
APG makes first IMQubator investment
[16:30 CEST 02-06] NETHERLANDS – IMQubator, an innovation project backed by asset manager APG, has selected its first investment target with an allocation of €25m, and bought into a start-up fund combining an absolute return strategy with a new take on sustainability.
- News
'Failed' industry-wide schemes could lose members
[16:20 CEST 27-05] NETHERLANDS - Almost one in four Dutch pension funds with mandatory membership did not pass a key investment performance test between 2004 to 2008 and could potentially lose sponsoring employers as a result, according to VB, the Dutch association of industry-wide schemes.
- News
Vopak swaps Mn Services for BlackRock
[16:15 CEST 12-05] NETHERLANDS - After a lengthy evaluation process, the pension scheme of Vopak, storage provider for bulk liquids, has given a fiduciary mandate worth €500m to Black Rock.
- News
ABP comes close to 100% again
[12:00 CEST 12-05] NETHERLANDS - The funding ratio of ABP, the largest Dutch pension fund for civil servants, is hovering in the region of 95% to 100%, Harry Borghouts, interim president, said yesterday at the presentation of ABP’s annual report.
- News
Hoogovens' recovery enacted despite hedge
[16:30 CEST 22-04] NETHERLANDS - Falling interest rates as well as an negative returns on equities caused the cover ratio of Stichting Pensioenfonds Hoogovens to fall from 135.8% in 2007 to 105.5% a year later, even though the scheme had applied a sizeable interest rate hedge.
- News
Reed Elsevier boosts its pension fund coffers
[16:50 CEST 21-04] NETHERLANDS – Publishing house Reed Elsevier will pay €54m into its pension fund over the coming five years, to support measures taken to restore the funding shortfall of the scheme.
- News
Shell reduces equities to meet recovery plan
[14:00 CEST 14-04] NETHERLANDS – The Dutch pension fund of Royal Dutch Shell Group is hoping to return its funding ratio to the minimum statutory level of 105% by October 2011, through a series of changes including alterations to its asset allocation.