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Article: Dutch courage: pension funds.(pension fund investments)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- April 6, 1996
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1996 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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AMSTERDAM
FOR a small country, the Netherlands boasts some remarkably big pension funds. ABP, the main civil-service fund, alone has around 250 billion guilders ($151 billion) in its coffers. But, like other public-sector institutions, it is still quite staid. The country's corporate pension funds, on the other hand, are rapidly turning themselves into aggressive, Anglo-Saxon-style investment vehicles. Their success could inspire pension funds in other European countries to follow the Dutch model.
The most significant change in the Netherlands has been in the way that pension funds invest their money. Historically, most of them preferred stodgy investments in ...