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)