In the fourth quarter of 2020, Dutch pension funds saw their financial position improve again. Their combined managed assets went up EUR 94 billion to EUR 1,691 billion, while liabilities went up EUR 12 billion to EUR 1,687 billion. With growth in assets outstripping that in liabilities, their financial position improved.
The pension funds’ average funding ratio came to 100.3% as at 31 December 2020. This represents a 5.0 percentage point increase from 30 September 2020 (see Figure 1). The funding ratio rose for the third consecutive quarter, but it is still below the figure for the fourth quarter of 2019, which was 104.0%. The funding ratio reflects a pension fund’s current financial position, expressing the ratio between available assets and liabilities.
The policy funding rate came to 95.0% as at 31 December 2020. This represents a 1.0 percentage point decrease from 30 September 2020 (see Figure 1). The policy funding ratio is the average of the funding ratios for the past twelve months. It fell because the funding ratio in the fourth quarter of 2020 was lower than that in the corresponding quarter of 2019.
At De Nederlandsche Bank, we independently compile statistics on the Dutch financial sector and economy. This article is based on these statistics. More information on our statistics and all dashboards can be found on our Statistics homepage.
Further information
We used the following statistics to compile this news release:
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