Dutch households’ confidence in pension funds “remained stable” over the past year, despite turmoil in the financial markets.

According to research by De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB), 62 per cent of Dutch people are fully or mostly confident that pension funds will be able to meet their pensioner commitments.

This is the same level of confidence as was observed in last year’s survey.

Overall, 52 per cent of respondents had a fair or very high level of trust in financial institutions.

The remaining 48 per cent had little or no confidence in Dutch financial institutions.

Dutch households’ confidence in insurers and banks also remained at similar levels, although the proportion of people concerned about banks going bankrupt increased slightly, from 34 per cent to 38 per cent.

Responding to the report, Dutch pension fund PFZW said that it considered the stability in people’s confidence in pension funds as “positive”, especially given the recent problems at banks in the US and Switzerland.

“We want to take care of pension concerns for all participants, whether you are working and accruing pension or already enjoying your pension,” it stated.

PFZW’s funding ratio increased by 0.3 percentage points in the first quarter of 2023, to 109.5 per cent.

“The fact that the funding ratio has risen recently is mainly due to the return achieved,” the pension fund explained.

“Rising interest rates also provided relief in terms of pension payments; pension funds need to have less money in cash when interest rates are higher.”

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