BELGIUM – CPM-VKG, the e500m Brussels based pension fund for doctors, dentists and pharmacists, has set up a new executive committee for the scheme in a bid to guarantee long-term stable performance and improve the fund’s management structure.

The move follows the announcement by VKG’s general assembly that it would pay 6.75% (3.75% guaranteed interest plus 3% net profit participation) to members for the year 2000, despite ending the twelve-month period with negative performance of –2.13%.

The pay out, according to VKG, means that for the fifth consecutive year the fund’s members will be offered the best performance of the market.
Last year’s negative performance was the first time since 1995 that the scheme had ended a year with a loss, and consequently performance over five years remains high at 16%.

The new executive committee is composed of Karel Stroobants as chairman, Filip Torfs as director of operations, Carl Haenck as finance director and Roland Louis – business development director.
The VKG-CPM board of trustees has also undertaken a co-operation agreement with François Stroobant, an external consultant.

Earlier this year VKG-CPM received licenses from the Belgian government to set up a mutual insurance operation and a mutual fund, in a move to widen membership to cover all the country’s health-care sector workers.
It will also be offering supplementary services to its own members and by 2001 members will have the possibility to access their pension accounts on the internet.

The fund also enjoyed a 12.5% growth in members over the year with active participants rising to 16,138, making contributions in excess of e19m – up 7.4% in comparison with 1999.