Pension fund for Dutch tyre industry drops Syntrus Achmea

Banden en Wielen, the €526m pension fund for the Dutch wheel and tyre sector, has dropped Syntrus Achmea, citing a number of complaints over the administration provided by the company. 

The pension fund switched to pensions provider and NN Group subsidiary AZL since its contract with Syntrus Achmea expired at the end of last year.

The pension funds for Dutch confectioners (Zoetwaren), the retail sector (Detailhandel) and the recreation industry (Recreatie) have also dropped Syntrus Achmea in the recent past.

Dutch news daily De Telegraaf quoted Ruud Spuijbroek, secretary for Banden en Wielen, as saying that the introduction of a new administration system at Syntrus Achmea last year “utterly failed”.

“As a consequence of this, new participants did not receive their start letter within the required term of three months,” he said.

Last year, the pension fund paid Syntrus Achmea approximately €1m for its services.

The company argued that problems with the new administration system dated from 2014 and said the issues had been resolved in the meantime. 

In November 2015, the €2bn pension fund for confectioners voiced similar complaints about Syntrus Achmea, claiming that the new administration system had caused considerable delays.

At the time, the company said it had given precedence to correctness over timeliness.

In 2012, it introduced a new system that linked companies’ salary administration directly with its pensions administration.

At the time, it said the “new standard” would allow employers to inform both the Inland Revenue and the pension fund with the single push of a button.

Syntrus Achmea is not the only pensions provider to come under pressure from clients of late.

Last year, the large metal schemes PME and PMT, as well as the pension fund for the merchant navy (Koopvaardij), criticised their own provider and asset manager MN.

They complained about problems with the calculation of benefits and communication with pensioners, as well as about the “too late and too slow” implementation of the improvement programme.