NETHERLANDS – Dutch social affairs minister Art Jan de Geus says he takes no responsibility for the impact on pension funds’ asset allocation following the new Financial Assessment Framework (nFTK).

For him it’s a technical matter between experts, he told IPE in an interview.

Asked about the law of unintended consequences which is seeing asset management decisions being driven by regulatory requirement rather than a market demand, he said:

“The only thing I can say to this is that it is a debate between experts,” he said. “Of course I have to make a political decision on it and I made it the moment that there was an agreement at expert level.

“Maybe some people who work in pension funds are now disappointed about losing some freedom, but my statement on this point is that I had no political reasons to form the nFTK in other way because the format was based on discussions and agreements between experts from our supervisory authority, our department and the social partners.

“I cannot satisfy everyone and of course in the case where such an agreement has emerged I would be a fool if I did not give it my political endorsement, so I did.

“And at that point some people who had wanted another outcome or who lost their point in the debate came to me and complained. That’s a politician’s role.”

De Geus said the real problem for pension funds is that “they want to communicate security but they don’t want make the reserves”.

He went on: “We have to change, we really have to change. Wake up pension funds. We need a labour market and we need it now.”

His main objective was to get a system that is “solid and that is sustainable both for now and the next generation”.

“We have already waited too long and if we postpone it further, will the next initiative be on time? If we do not answer aging and global economic challenges, if we do not adapt in time, then we will have to make much more radical changes in the future and take much more unpopular decisions.”

The full version of this interview appears in the latest edition of IPE Netherlands.

Topics