GERMANY - The German arm of Swiss-based UBS Global Asset Management is teaming up with VIFA Pensionsfonds to provide pension plans to German companies.

VIFA Pensionsfonds was set up last year by a consortium that includes the pension fund of the Protestant churches in Germany and BfS Bank in Cologne.

It was one of the first Pensionsfonds, the new vehicle established by the Riester reforms, to receive certification from BAFin, the federal Institution for supervision of financial services, in June last year. There are now 15 certified Pensionsfonds.

UBS AM Germany, which aims to become a leading foreign asset manager in Germany, has E 4.5bn assets under management. Two thirds of this is institutional business, split between segregated funds via Spezialfonds and corporate pension schemes

UBS has already worked with VIFA to structure a Riester Pensionsfond for BMW. It plans to market its life cycle product which manages risk according to the age of profile of the workforce

Tim Blackwell, head of UBS Global AM Germany in Frankfurt, said: "We are joining forces with VIFA to provide the life cycle concept through their Pensionsfonds vehicle. It is effectively a bundled scheme where we are trying to combine VIFA’s best practice record-keeping and administration solutions with UBS Global’s asset management expertise and lifecycle solution, which is innovative and leading edge in the German market."

Blackwell said that the mutual funds in the scheme were currently going through the registration process and UBS Global expected to be able to launch within the first six months of this year.



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