European pension schemes are adopting a 'wait and see strategy' as the US market remains highly volatile.
Several of the larger Dutch pension funds have decided to refrain from any sudden changes in their investment policies and will stick to their long-term investment strategies for the time being. Jos van Dijk, spokeswoman for the €240bn civil service scheme ABP, said: "Following the lessons learned from the credit crisis, we have elaborated our risk management on interest and inflation, improved our liquidity management and further spread our counterparty risk. Therefore, we are keeping our head cool and sticking to our long-term investment policy."
Peter Borgdorff, director of the €100bn healthcare scheme PFZW, said: "We have decided to consider any response to developments on a daily basis. Meanwhile, we are looking at a variety of long-term scenarios". He said the funding of his scheme – 110 per cent at the end of June – had taken a considerable hit and that indexation had become less likely as a consequence.
"Although our coverage ratio is still sufficient, we might need to review our pension ambition", he added. "Although we have factored in foreseeable and possible risks, a downgrading of the creditworthiness of the US was not one of our scenarios." Borgdorff declined to elaborate on possible adjustments of the investment portfolio.
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