Belgian pension funds have on average returned -0.32% over 2011, according to the Belgian Association of Pension Institutions (BVPI). In 2010, the funds returned on average 9.5%.

BVPI’s chair Philip Neyt said: “It pleases me that Belgian pension funds, as transparent, long-term investors, have managed to maintain their assets in the very turbulent and difficult year that was 2011. Pension funds are after all not speculators, they are social institutions with the sole purpose of maintaining the future pensions of their members as well as possible.”

At 31 December 2011, pension funds had invested 37% in equities, 52% in bonds, 4% in property, 4% in cash and 3% in other investments, such as commodities, infrastructure and private equity, the association found.

For their research, BVPI questioned 55 pension funds, representating about 65% of the Belgian pension industry. Occupational pension provision is a relatively new concept in Belgium and according to the country’s regulator FSMA, there were 226 Belgian pension funds at the end of 2010, with a total of 858,074 members. This number was made up of 560,895 active members, 255,756 deferred members and 41,423 pensioners.

BVPI said the number of pension funds had decreased slightly compared to a few years ago, but attributed this to the fusion of several pension funds under one single employer. The association said new pension funds are still being created, with five new pension funds established in 2011 and already one new fund created in January of this year.

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