In the middle of this holiday period, I like to briefly look ahead to the second half of this year. The Future Pensions Act and the responsible investment of your pension money will again be high on the agenda in the second half of the year. We will also evaluate our indexation policy.
Looking ahead to the second half of the year
Future Pensions Act
In the middle of this holiday period, I like to look ahead to the topics we will be working on in the second half of this year. The Future Pensions Act is being discussed by the House of Representatives. This means that the subject of pensions will again receive a lot of attention in the media. As you may know, we are already working hard behind the scenes to prepare for the transition to the new pension system. We will continue to do so in the coming period. As soon as decisions are made in that context that are relevant to you, we will of course inform you about this.
Evaluation indexation policy
This autumn we will also discuss our indexation policy in the Board. Last year we saw that there was a big difference between wage inflation (the development of collective wage developments at Philips) and price inflation (the development of the derived consumer price index). In the context of the decision-making process on this year's indexation, the Board has intensively discussed the question of whether the large difference in wage and price inflation should be a reason to deviate from the existing policy. Ultimately, it was decided not to. It was decided, however, to evaluate the indexation policy. This is due to the large difference in inflation/indexation mentioned and because we will soon be switching to a new pension system. You can read more about the decision-making process regarding indexation granted in 2022 here.
Responsible investing
Finally, the subject responsible investment is still on the agenda. To refresh your memory: in 2020 we asked for your opinion on responsible investing. We used your answers to adjust the investment policy, which was the starting point for aligning the entire portfolio more closely with the 4 social development goals that Philips Pensioenfonds uses as a spearhead (the so-called Sustainable Development Goals: 3 Good health and well-being, 11 Sustainable cities and communities, 12 Responsible consumption and production and 13 Climate action). In December 2021 we therefore adjusted the equity portfolio for developed markets and from now on we will invest more in companies that contribute to these goals. We now want to implement this policy in our emerging market equities portfolio. A decision on this is scheduled for this fall.
But we are not there yet. For now I wish you a nice summer period and a nice holiday.
Jasper Kemme
Managing Director