The Netherlands might be best known for its clogs, windmills and perennial World Cup final losing football team, but now there could be a new claim to fame due to the country's introduction of a pension register. What can it bring to the Netherlands and what could it mean for the rest of Europe?

When on 6 January the online register opened many could not log on due to the success, "website too busy" the screen read. The average amount of visitors after two weeks was 50.000 per day and within no time theone million mark had been reached. Many a financial website would kill for that amount of visitors, let alone one dealing in pensions.

But this website is different. It gives insight into the total amount saved in the first and second pillar pension systems. Some people who logged on were pleasantly surprised, seeing contributions from funds they forgot they saved into, and some were disappointed, seeing they were to receive less upon retirement than they thought they would.

According to the Stichting Pensioen Register, the organisation behind the system, most people, 31 per cent, that logged on were between 50 and 60 years old. The group that followed, with 26 per cent, were the pre-pensioners and early retirees, the 60 to 64 year olds. Nineteen per cent was 40- 50 year old and 12 per cent was 30- 40 years old. The least curious after their pension, or maybe the ones who did not expect to see a sustainable sum of money on their screen yet, are the 20 to 30 year olds, who accounted for five per cent of the visitation total.

Approximately two per cent of all people checking their pension savings have also then contacted their pension provider for more information.

So far responses from the industry have been positive. Gert Kloosterboer, press officer at the Dutch Foundation of Company Pension Funds (OPF) says that every one of the body's stakeholders agrees that it is a major step forward. "Of course, there are always ways to improve, but mainly we wanted the register out there, as soon as possible, after that we would have the chance to look at what to do next," he says.

"The launch in January has been a huge achievement. The wishes from all 600 pension providers have been countless. Not all made sense, not all were implementable. We are still looking at things to make the system better."

"One improvement aired is the attachment of the third pillar pension savings," he says. "This is quite an important one, as is the wish to provide the net instead of the gross figures."

Attaching inflation expectations to the register to give it a more realistic view has also been recommended by the financial communications watchdog AFM (Authoriteit Financiele Markten).

A technical weak point is the system's inability to cater for most expats. This is due to the log on system, which requires a DigiD code to ensure absolute privacy. This code is handed out to everyone registered as living in one of the Dutch councils, only expats that requested one before leaving can access their details. Pieter Keestra, spokesman for the Pension Register says the organisation are dependent on the government to offer a solution to this problem.

Chris Verhaegen, Secretary General of the European Federation for Retirement Provision (pictured), has also welcomed the register. "I think there will be more countries that will introduce a similar application based on the Dutch register," she says. "In Belgium they are currently working hard to introduce a first and second pillar register but this will only be for employees, the self employed for example will not be included, and in Sweden they have a system but it only shows the first pillar pensions."

There are currently appointments for talks in Brussels to talk about the register in a European context.

Asked if Verhaegen sees any opportunities for an EU wide pension register, as was advocated by Dutch Social Affairs minister Henk Kamp a few weeks ago, she replies: "It would be great to have this all over the border. It will be very hard though and I do not see how this will ever happen if individual countries do not foresee this likelihood and already built in a structure for the future into their current register."

Gert Kloosterboer welcomes the opportunity to function as an example for other countries. "In the Netherlands there is a strong second pillar, in other countries that can vary. This is a matter that has to be taken into account. However, we are pretty proud of our system and there is an open invitation for people to come and see how it is operating. "

azeevalkink@wilmington.co.uk