Several Dutch pension funds have published funding updates for their schemes, which reported mixed results in their policy and current funding ratios.

Pensioenfonds PGB returned 9.4 per cent on its investments in 2024, its quarterly results revealed.

The investment performance resulted in the fund’s pension assets rising to €34.9bn at the end of the year. The value of the liabilities increased from €28.6bn at the end of 2023 to €30.1bn at the end of 2024.

In addition to this, the investments to hedge the interest rate risk (matching portfolio) returned 3.2 per cent over the fourth quarter of 2024, while the investments to achieve an extra return, such as equities, achieved a return of 14.1 per cent over the year.

At the same time, interest rates fell, meaning the fund set aside more money for current and future pensions, and as a result, its policy coverage ratio fell “slightly” compared to the end of 2023, but at the end of 2024 it still stood at a “healthy” 116.2 per cent.  
 
The fund said that this reflected the financial situation over the past couple of months but increased slightly in the fourth quarter of 2024 from 116 per cent on 30 September 2024 to 116.2 per cent on 31 December 2024.

Meanwhile, the current coverage ratio fell from 117.8 per cent on 30 September to 116.7 per cent on 31 December 2024. This concerns the UFR coverage ratio.

PGB’s return on defined contribution (DC) schemes was positive for all age groups over the fourth quarter. For participants aged up to 49, the return was 12.5 per cent, for those aged 50 to 55 it was 11.4 per cent and for those aged 56 to 61, it was 10.3 per cent.

The return for participants aged 62 and over was 9.2 per cent over the first two quarters of 2024.

Commenting on its results, Pensioenfonds PGB vice chairman, Ronald Heijn, said: “At this moment, Pensioenfonds PGB is financially healthy and stable. And that's good news. We achieved a good return on our investments.”

In addition to this, Pensioenfonds Hoogovens reported that its current coverage ratio rose from 122.2 per cent in December 2024 to 125.4 per cent in January 2025.

The discount rate had a positive effect of 1.2 percentage points on the development of the current coverage ratio in 2025.

The value of the invested capital increased from €10,415m to €10,556m in January 2025, which increased the current coverage ratio by 1.9 percentage points.

In addition to this, the fund’s policy coverage ratio rose from 123.9 per cent in December 2024 to 124.1 per cent in January 2025.

The policy coverage ratio was therefore 18.4 percentage points lower than the coverage ratio for future-proof indexation (TBI). The TBI is the coverage ratio from which allowances not granted in the past may be made up.

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