ING confirms interest in private pensions

Dutch financial group ING is planning to enter the private pension market in Romania, ING’s manager for Europe Jan Nijssen told De Telegraaf, which also interviewed Finance minister Mihai Tanasescu. The company is already selling a private pension product, but the involvement the manager is talking about concerns the privately managed public pension funds, which are about to be regulated. “This is a unique situation for ING. The Romanians will want a second pillar in pension building for safety reasons. This system is in line with the World Bank model and is based on capital coverage – i.e. having people save money for their pensions,” Nijssen said. Mihai Tanasescu explained Romania had to speed up the pension system reform in order to be able to integrate in the EU. ZF