A positive interview with André Hollenkamp

“This is actually going to be quite a positive interview,” André laughed while taking a sip from his coffee. Although the pension plan has ended and the accrual of new pension has been transferred to BeFrank, we have good news about the increase of pensions in January.”

“Indexation of pension rights accrued in the past is allowed if the pension fund's financial buffers are robust enough. We are bound by legal requirements in this respect. If the pension fund's funding ratio is at least 110%, partial indexation is allowed. We are relatively well-positioned, given that our policy funding ratio was 122% as at 30 September. I'm saying relatively, because full indexation is not allowed until the funding ratio is at least 144%. At the end of December we'll make a decision on this. The outlook is currently good, although we won't be able to grant full indexation. In early January we will communicate more about this.” 

How do you look back at this past year?
“It’s been a very intense year for us, with lots of meetings about the termination of the pension agreement. Before the summer, the social partners (the employer and the trade unions) decided to discontinue pension accrual through NN CDC Pensioenfonds from 1 October 2022. Of course, we were disappointed to hear that, but we now have to focus our attention on dealing with some new issues. We are currently in the process of adjusting our administrative systems to the new situation and we’re putting more time into serving customers and on our communications. And of course, we are considering our future. In the year ahead, we will explore our options.

”You yourself are building up a pension in a CDC pension plan. What issues are you concerned about and which of those do you take with you to the board table?
“I started working at ING back in 2002, so a lot of my pension is in the old pension fund and part of it is in the new one. I'm really interested in pensions, which is why I joined the boards of NN CDC and ING CDC Pensioenfonds in 2013. It was a totally different line of work than my daily job. Different models and drivers. I was interested in acquiring new expertise and taking my social responsibility. I had already built up a lot of product expertise in my work and my focus was on risk management. That's very useful in this position. 

Of course, I am also concerned about my own pension. I recently turned 58 and bought a new house two years ago. I'm not considering retirement yet because I enjoy my work, but I always keep close track of my pension. I would urge everyone to do the same. Time is an important factor when it comes to pension. The sooner you know what your financial situation is, the better. You'll have more time to take action if necessary.”

What are colleagues concerned about at present?
We carried out a customer satisfaction survey this fall, which quite a lot of colleagues took part in. The survey revealed that many were dissatisfied with our decision not to facilitate value transfers to BeFrank for people who are still in employment. I understand that, because it's convenient to have all your pension in one location. I would like to explain that we were unable to make a different decision, given our legal duty to carefully weigh everyone's interests. That might sound vague, but we simply had to do it this way. It is our duty to care for the collective assets of all participants. A value transfer would have been disadvantageous to our financial position and that would not have been in anyone's best interests. Our regulator would probably not have given permission anyway.  

We were very happy with the outcome of the other parts of the survey. Nine out of ten colleagues are aware that they themselves are responsible for ensuring they will have enough pension and almost nine out of ten know how much pension they'll be getting when they retire. That's good, because pension awareness is one of our goals. And half of our colleagues are setting aside additional savings for their retirement, so I think our message has come across clearly. Nevertheless, we keep calling on our colleagues to take action.”