ING anticipates 200,000 voluntary pension clients

Dutch-based ING, which attracted almost 1.3 million clients during the mandatory pension campaign and became leader of this market, predicts it will close this year with at least 200,000 clients on the voluntary pensions market. “I think the voluntary pensions market will reach at least 500,000 participants in 2008, and even one million in the best circumstances. I think mandatory pension sales will significantly encourage the sales of voluntary pensions and life insurance, because people are starting to become aware of the importance of these products,” said Bram Boon, general manager of ING Asigurari de Viata (ING Life Insurance), leader of the life insurance market. He predicts that, by the end of the year, the company will manage assets worth at least 40 million euros on the voluntary pension market, given that every participant will pay at least 200 euros a year, the maximum fiscal-deductible contribution.