LUXEMBOURG - Fortis Investments says it has received approval for pooled liability-driven investment funds from Luxembourg.

It said it has approval from the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier for a range of euro-denominated pooled liability-driven investment funds for institutional investors.

“This is a paradigm shift for many pension funds and will lead to a significant change in the way they will look at their investment portfolio, focussing on a truly liability-driven approach,” said Thomas Rostron, managing director of client service and business development.

“Our approach is highly flexible and allows us to provide customised solutions for each client, while exploiting the efficiency of pooling,” added Jan Lodewijk Roebroek, chief executive in the Netherlands.

“This is particularly important in the Netherlands where the upcoming introduction of FTK is also impacting a large number of small and medium-sized pension funds that do not have the resources for individual, non-pooled LDI solutions."

Liability-driven investment is a hot topic in the industry at the moment.

In March Barclays Global Investors launched 20 pooled liability driven investment funds with more than £1bn (€1.45bn) in assets, saying the move aimed to bring LDI into the mainstream.