SWITERLAND – Swiss pension funds returned 1.2% in the third quarter of this year, according to a new report from InterSec.

“The median manager in InterSec's Swiss Balanced Universe returned +1.2% for the quarter and slightly underperformed the InterSec Balanced Benchmark, coming in at +1.4%,” said InterSec in a statement.

"After the very promising second-quarter results it looks like a little setback,” said Peter Leutenegger of InterSec Switzerland. “However, these results still beat most of the quarterly results we have seen over the last two years.”

InterSec said that the average allocation figures of the median manager are currently almost identical to those seen in the third quarter of 2002. This follows some slight shifting from equities to bonds and back to equities over the last 12 months, it said.

The firm added that the Pictet BVG/LPP-Index for the third quarter showed a return of +0.9% and was outperformed by over 60% of the universe portfolios.

In July InterSec said Swiss pension funds returned seven percent in the second quarter, which it termed a “turnaround” in performance.