Two of the three Danish labour-market pension funds behind the joint pensions administration firm Forca have vowed to continue with the joint venture, despite the decision by the third co-founder to go its own way.
Paedagogernes Pensionskasse (PBU), the Danish pension fund for education practitioners, confirmed it has decided to withdraw from the three-way cooperation behind pension service supplier Forca, which PBU owns together with Lærernes Pension, the Danish pension fund for teachers, and PKA.
PBU, which had DKK87.4bn (€11.7bn) in assets at the end of 2023, said its board of directors had unanimously voted to leave Forca.
Sune Schackenfeldt, chief executive officer of PBU, said: “We have been happy with the cooperation in Forca, but after a long process, we have come to the conclusion that it is not the optimal model for us and our members in the future.
“We want a greater degree of independence and freedom of choice in the way we arrange and design our products and services, and that is why we have chosen to withdraw from Forca,” Schackenfeldt said.
Forca was formed in 2005 to handle all the daily pensions operations of the then eight pension funds managed by PKA, PBU and Laerernes Pension. Following pension fund mergers, PKA currently runs four pension funds.
In a joint statement, PKA and Lærnernes Pension said they had respect for PBU’s decision, but had agreed to continue and build on the collaboration under the auspices of Forca.
PKA CEO Jon Johnsen, and Karsten Kjeldsen, Lærnernes Pension’s CEO, said: “We are sorry PBU has chosen to leave the Forca collaboration, but we respect the fact that the board of PBU has chosen a different direction for the pension fund and the servicing of its members.”
The two CEOs said they continued to believe that their pension fund members received the best and most efficient service for their needs through Forca.
“Member satisfaction at both Lærernes Pension and PKA also testifies to this,” they said.
“With more than half a million members across PKA and Lærnernes Pension, there are still significant economies of scale to be gained from the Forca collaboration,” they said.
The three pension funds said that in conjunction with Forca’s management, they would now start talks on how to effect PBU’s withdrawal from the Forca collaboration in the best possible way for all parties.
Forca provides pension services for some 706,000 pension scheme members on behalf of the pension firms, including member service, actuarial service, fund service, compliance, IT service and finance and accounting services.
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