SPF, the €14.6bn pension fund for Dutch railway workers, and SPOV, the €3.5bn scheme for the public transportation sector, are considering a merger.

SPF Beheer, their joint pensions provider, recently confirmed that one of those options include the possibility of a full merger.

Hennie Zoontjes, spokesman for SPF Beheer, said: “Costs play a role – both schemes are active in the same sector, and their funding ratios are getting closer.

“A lot of things still need to be done, but a merger is a logical option.”

The pension funds’ investment committees have held joint meetings since last January.

SPF has more than 72,000 members, while SPOV has 27,000.

SPF reported administration costs of €129 per participant against SPOV’s €187.

However, the public transport scheme said its costs would have been closer to €145 had it not factored in one-off expenses for raising its retirement target age.

As of the end of June, SPF’s funding stood at 114%, SPOV’s 109%.

The railway scheme has adopted a riskier investment policy, with proportionally larger allocations to equity and real estate, and smaller allocations to fixed income.

Over the course of 2014, SPF returned 14.3%, while SPOV returned nearly 16% over the same period.

Neither SPF nor SPOV was available for comment.

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