Swiss, RI firms set up pension fund

Swiss, RI firms set up pension fund

JAKARTA (JP): The Ministry of Finance has licensed Winterthur
Life Indonesia, a Swiss-Indonesian joint insurance company, to
establish a pension fund in the country.

The president of Winterthur Life Indonesia, Ruswan Arifin,
told reporters here yesterday that the new pension fund, called
Winterthur Indonesia, will invest 80 percent of the funds in
banking deposits, 10 percent in bonds and the other 10 percent in
stocks.

"We will assign MeesPierson Finas, a British-Indonesian joint
venture, to manage the funds invested in stocks in the domestic
capital market," he said.

Ruswan said the new pension fund is expected to net 100
companies to become its clients within the next five years.

According to the pension law, clients of a pension fund have
the rights to decide the kinds of business in which their funds
will be invested.

Winterthur Life Indonesian, set up in 1992, is a joint life
insurance venture 60 percent owned by Winterthur of Switzerland
and 40 percent by PT Wahana Tata.

The Ministry of Finance thus far has granted licenses to
insurance companies and banks to form four pension funds in the
country. (yns)