Dutch regulators De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) and the Financial Markets Authority (AFM) have approved a request for a licence to operate a PPI, a Dutch pensions vehicle for defined contribution (DC) schemes, from Towers Watson.

Ton Winkels, director at Towers Watson Pension Services, said the PPI would operate independently from the consultancy.  

Towers Watson is to work together with Dutch pensions provider Syntrus Achmea on administration and asset management, elipsLife on insurance, State Street Global Advisors on asset management and Financial Life Support on financial planning.

In its proposition, the consultancy said it would focus on providing on insight on retirement income.

Members will receive not only the mandatory, uniform pensions statement that cites gross yearly income but also an overview of net monthly income in real terms.

Winkels, however, pointed out that the amounts given would be estimates that could fluctuate.

“But at least it will allow people to compare apples with apples,” he said.

The Towers Watson PPI will be the tenth on the Dutch market. The others operate solely in the Netherlands, although Nationale Nederlanden and Robeco have expressed a desire to expand cross-border.

The same is true for Towers Watson.

“We have the ambition to spread our wings outside the Netherlands,” Winkels said.

The first product offering is to arrive by 2015 at the earliest.

Winkels said Towers Watson would need to explore further in which countries a PPI would have value.

“There are more possibilities to create economies of scale,” he said.

Towers Watson had to await regulatory approval for its PPI application for more than nine months, as the regulator wanted guarantees the consultancy “wouldn’t pull the plug after one or two years”, Winkels said. 

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