A Swiss government official has expressed hope that the Altersvorsorge 2020 pension reform package will survive an “unavoidable” referendum and acknowledged that the government conceded on a major point to achieve this.
In its proposed draft – to be debated by Parliament – the government recommended lowering the conversion rate used to calculate pension payouts from accrued assets from 6.8% to 6%, even though it believes the 6% figure to be too high.
Both industry representatives and government experts agree on the need for the sizeable cut to avoid further transfers of active members’ assets to pensioners.
Swiss actuaries, in their comments on the draft law, strongly recommended lowering the conversion rate even further.
However, Jürg Brechbühl, director at the Swiss Federal Insurance Office (BSV), told participants at a recent conference in Zurich that the government had set the conversion rate level with “the referendum in mind”.
