Summary evaluation
Over the past year, the AC has mainly focused on the following issues:
- The Future Pensions Act, the balance of the new scheme and the transition. The AC closely monitored the Board’s decision-making process. The AC has the right to advise on the allocation of assets during the transition to the new pension. The AC must understand the new scheme’s different components and the considerations underlying the future asset allocation in order to properly assess the balance of the proposals.
- The Board took a large number of provisional decisions, which was in part related to the social partners’ delayed delivery of the Transition Plan. The final Transition Plan is expected to be available by the end of the first quarter of 2025, more than six months later than planned. The AC regrets this.
Careful preparation by the Board and the administrator and an evaluation by the AC and Supervisory Board (SB) take time. The AC also estimates that a transition on 1 January 2026 will not be feasible. The arguments for postponing the transition date are valid.
- IT policy and developments. The separation of DPS from dsm-firmenich was concluded successfully at the end of 2024. Sound business operations based on integrity and the provision of a robust and reliable IT infrastructure by DPS are in the interests of all stakeholders.
- The Board and DPS have been optimising the quality of pension entitlement administration data for several years. The AC was involved in all steps that were taken. It is unfortunate that SPF has been disadvantaged by its own head start. The Dutch Federation of Pension Funds’ Data Quality Framework was not yet available at the start of the Data Quality project, which means that certain documents will need to be modified based on the new structure.
- Balanced decisions. The third focus point related to justifying whether Board decisions are balanced. Until now, the Board has only been able to take partial decisions with respect to the Future Pensions Act process. A comprehensive assessment by all stakeholders will take place when the final documents that must be submitted to De Nederlandsche Bank are ready.
The AC and the issued advice
The AC issued two recommendations during the course of 2024:
- The first recommendation concerned the amendment to the Administration Agreement. This needed to be amended when SABIC divested a business unit with effect from 1 September 2024. The newly formed company F&S B.V. decided to continue with the current SPF pension scheme for its employees.
- The second recommendation concerned the profile for a new SB member. The policy areas of finance, internal audit and risk management form the core of this profile.
The AC issued positive advice on both topics.
The Accountability Council’s priorities for 2024
The priorities the AC agreed for 2024 also apply to 2025: the Future Pensions Act, IT and cybercrime and the balance of Board decisions.
Now that the details of the future scheme and the transition are becoming clearer, the AC will focus more on communication aspects. There will be many changes for members, deferred members and pensioners. The notion that a new pension scheme under the Future Pensions Act would be easier to explain than under the current Financial Assessment Framework has turned out to be wishful thinking. Political debate is also contributing to the sense of uncertainty. It is therefore important that SPF keeps members informed of expected changes and explains the new scheme, the transition and the considerations involved in a clear and accessible way.
The AC will also schedule topics according to the annual agenda, and the Executive Board will be asked to address these in the periodic consultation. The complete evaluation by the Accountability Council and the SPF Board’s response to the evaluation can be read in the SPF annual report (PDF in Dutch only).
