17/02/2011
By Ilonka Oudenampsen
The Dutch government will hold a hearing about the investment policies of pension funds, after TV programme Zembla claimed that the funds have missed out on €145 billion due to bad investments.
On 31 March, the Government will be questioning several experts, including Frits Bosch, who conducted the research on which Zembla’s conclusions were based. According to IPN, Parliament member and Christian Democrat Pieter Omtzigt said that others who have been invited to the hearing are Joanne Kellerman (director at Dutch regulator De Nederlandsche Bank), Rein van Dam (ex-director supervision Pension and Insurance Chamber), Jean Frijns (ex-CIO of pension fund ABP), several representatives of Robeco, Guus Boender (Ortec), Angelien Kemna (board member of APG) and Fieke van der Lecq (Erasmus School of Economics and ex-NMa).
Omtzigt has also invited both experts and other individuals to give their opinion on the investments of pension funds, their policy and any other relevant issues. These will then be bundled and made accessible to everyone. The Government hopes that this will open up a fierce public debate.
On 5 February, Zembla said pension funds have missed out on €799 billion due to lowering premiums and repayments. On top of that, it claimed the funds had lost another €146 billion due to bad investments. A few days after the programme was aired however, other experts recalculated the figures and concluded that Bosch had made severe calculation mistakes and that his figure is therefore at least €650 billion higher than the real amount.
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