Philip Neyt, head of te Belgacom Pension Fund, is a man with great confidence in his fund. Asked why Belgacom made a submission to the IPE awards, he says it felt the fund structure could act as a model for other European funds. “We’ve put a lot of attention to our organisational design since it reflects our decision-making process.
“Since we are by far the largest pension fund in Belgium and in particular a public sector company pension fund, an effective governance has been put in place to monitor adequately different kind of fiduciary roles the portfolio securing the social security pensions of our statutory staff.”
Another reason for the submission was to be challenged by an independent panel of judges and to get their feedback. “I look forward to hearing what their comments were; for me it’s more important to know why than being the winner. But let’s be honest our team is very pleased with the award,” he says.
As to what distinguishes Belgacom’s structure and administration from others in Belgium, Neyt draws attention to the size of the fund. Belgium has numerous relatively small pension funds and even the larger ones are relatively small by European standards. According to Neyt, this means a lot of pension funds are less structured and are often combined within the finance or HR department with people who work not only for the pension fund but also for the company.
“We have a clear separation of duties along the fiduciary roles – governing, managing and operational, for example – which are embedded in written agreement and we have a formal statement of investment principles. We have also a clear separation between our investment managers, our custodian and our own bookkeeping and we reconcile cash on a daily basis by exception reports and we have strict reconciliation guidelines,” he says.
On the other hand, the involvement of the scheme’s participants via the unions give them a clear role in the decision making process. “Our mission is to create value for all our stakeholders – the employee, employer, shareholders and unions.” Neyt says winning the award means a lot the fund and that it is recognition for the whole team. As for the awards, they provide a good chance to meet contemporaries and to swap ideas. “We are open for every suggestion for improvement of our structure and we are always open to share our views with other pension funds.”

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