Ryter steps down as president of Swiss pension association

Christoph Ryter has stepped down as president of Switzerland’s pension fund association (ASIP) after nearly a decade.

Ryter, chief executive of the pension fund of retailer Migros, is to be succeeded by Jean-Rémy Roulet, currently chief executive of the CHF846m (€703m) Caisse paritaire de l’industrie et de la construction (CPPIC), the pension fund for construction workers in Geneva.

It brings to an end Ryter’s nine-year presidency of the association, which began when he was still chief executive of the Swiss pension fund for mining company Alcan. 

Roulet, who joined ASIP’s management board in 2013, was elected at the association’s annual general meeting, which also saw Markus Hübscher and Christoph Sarrasin join the association’s board.

Hübscher is chief executive of Pensionskasse SBB, the fund for the Swiss federal railway, while Sarrasin is director of Nestlé Pensionskasse.

In a statement, Roulet pointed to the success of the Swiss government’s reform package Altersvorsorge 2020 (AV2020) and threw his support behind its goals of ensuring financial stability of the first and second-pillar systems.

“ASIP is in favour of a balanced, rather than excessive, reform, one that can be shouldered by citizens, members and employers,” he said.

He added that all stakeholders needed to be ready to compromise to ensure the passage of AV2020.

Its success, he said, should not be thrown into doubt by demands from those to the left or right of the political spectrum.

“If the reform fails,” he added, “this will have a wide-ranging impact and lead to increased costs, which in turn would make the next reform much more difficult to implement.”