April 2026
01Apr

Dutch pension funds cut US exposure as rebalancing drives shift to Europe

Dutch pension funds were net sellers of US assets last year, reallocating capital towards Europe, according to figures from regulator DNB. On balance, funds sold €30bn of US equities and bonds, while purchasing €23bn of European securities. In 2025, pension funds sold €18bn of US government and corporate bonds and €12bn of equities. The decline was largely driven by civil servant scheme ABP, which divested more than €10bn of US government bonds. While US debt securities were predominantly sold, flows into European fixed...

April 1, 2026
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December 2025
17Dec

Dutch Pension Shift Obsessing Bond Traders Is About to Get Real

In the European market for long-term bonds, a once-loyal and deep pocketed customer is about to start shopping elsewhere. The €1.6 trillion ($1.9 trillion) Dutch pension system — the largest in the region — is undergoing a major transformation aimed at making it more sustainable for an aging population. Funds will invest more in riskier assets and less in bonds, with a big drop in demand expected for long-term interest-rate hedges. The big start of the shift, years in the planning,...

December 17, 2025
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October 2025
07Oct

Dutch PME fund withdraws investments from Israeli companies

The Dutch pension fund PME, with assets totaling $68 billion, has divested from investments in several companies linked to activities in the occupied Palestinian territories, after classifying these holdings as potentially connected to human rights violations. A spokesperson for the fund said the decision came after “a comprehensive review and months of consultations,” noting that the affected companies include U.S. online travel company Booking Holdings, cement company Cemex SAB de CV, and telecommunications equipment firm Motorola Solutions. The spokesperson added that...

October 7, 2025
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September 2025
17Sep

Dutch central bank reviews climate and nature risk to pensions and insurance

De Nederlandsche Bank is making a new push to help financial institutions manage climate and nature-related risk and it is conducting analysis of these risks at pension funds and insurers with a view to incorporating them into its regular risk assessments. “While the emphasis in recent years has been on raising awareness, DNB will increasingly focus on regulatory compliance. Supervision will follow a risk-based approach, tailored to the institution’s size, complexity, and the materiality of the risks,” the Dutch central...

September 17, 2025
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04Sep

Dutch fund PFZW reduces BlackRock ties over clash on sustainability

Dutch pension fund PFZW has stopped investing in stock funds managed by BlackRock, in part because of concerns over the U.S. firm's voting record on sustainability issues, its lead asset manager PGGM said on Wednesday. The move comes amid a wider activist campaign in the Netherlands to push the country's large pension schemes to drop managers that have reduced support for climate change-linked resolutions at company meetings. While some companies have scaled back the importance they attach to sustainability since the...

September 4, 2025
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01Sep

A “major trouble” of €2 trillion! Is the pension reform in the Netherlands about to ignite the European bond market?

The Zhito Finance APP has learned that a transformation nearing €2 trillion (approximately $2.3 trillion) is sweeping across the European bond market, adding further turbulence to the already unpredictable year of 2025—tariff upheavals, concerns over deficits, and a political crisis in France are all unfolding, and now the reform of the Dutch pension system has become the new eye of the storm. As the largest pension market in the European Union, this long-anticipated reform in the Netherlands has driven up...

September 1, 2025
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August 2025
26Aug

Dutch Central Bank strengthens nature risk rules for pension funds

The Dutch Central Bank (DNB) has revised its guide on managing climate and nature-related risks, originally introduced in 2023. The move follows growing concerns about the impact of climate change and biodiversity loss on the Dutch financial system, particularly pension funds and insurance companies. The updated guidance reflects DNB’s expectation that pension funds must identify and manage climate and nature risks effectively. It also introduces enhanced best practice recommendations, shaped through consultations with industry stakeholders such as Ortec Finance. As part of its...

August 26, 2025
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01Aug

Competition Among Dutch Pension Funds: Is there Any?

By Jacob Antoon Bikker & Jeroen Meringa This paper adds to the literature by analysing for the first time the functioning of the Dutch pension funds market from a competition or efficiency perspective. Of course, competition is severely limited on this highly regulated market. The analyses focus on a key property of well-functioning markets: the reward of efficiency. The conclusion can be drawn that in the market for pension funds efficiency is indeed rewarded, up to a certain level. New...

August 1, 2025
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June 2025
17Jun

Netherlands. Weaker US dollar hits pension funds harder than falling stock prices

At the end of the first quarter of 2025, Dutch pension funds managed assets worth €1,771 billion. Almost half of this, some €808 billion, is invested in currencies other than the euro.  This mostly concerns US dollar-denominated investments (€551 billion), of which €450 billion are investments in the United States. Source: DNB statistics 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...

June 17, 2025
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January 2025
28Jan

Dutch Pension Fund Seeks Divestment from BlackRock

A Dutch pension fund is considering cutting ties with BlackRock because of the manager’s departure from the Net-Zero Asset Managers Initiative. PME Pensioenfonds, a pension fund for the metals and technology industry which has more than 620,000 participants, said it was reconsidering the future of its 5 billion euros invested with the manager, according to a memo seen by CIO. The pension fund is among the largest in the Netherlands, with more than 280 billion euros ($294.17 billion) in assets under...

January 28, 2025
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