The Dutch pension scheme of TNO, the institute for applied technical research, has hired a new firm to look after the scheme's pensions administration.

As of this year AZL will take over the responsibility for the pensions administration concerning the 15,000 participants of the fund (Pensioenfonds TNO).

The scheme, which according to the latest data held by Pension Funds Online has over £2.5bn in assets under management, announced that some of the current employees of the scheme will move to AZL to continue to conduct their work from their offices.

Joop Ruijgrok, director of the fund, said that during the tendering process the scheme mainly focussed on the quality of the service provision, risk management and the quality of the internal processes. "We chose AZL because they knew how to distinguish themselves best based on these criteria," the director said. 

Director Arthur van der Wal from AZL is happy with the new contract: "AZL is proud that we can now provide the pensions for an institute with such a reputation. Through our office in Utrecht we are able to offer a perfect base, not only to deliver the administration but also to take in some of the scheme's own employees. This way you can create a win-win self-administrating pension schemes."

Recently Flexsecurity pensioen, Bedrijfstakpensioenfonds voor de Nederlandse Groothandel (SPNG) and Bedrijfstakpensioenfonds voor de Groothandel in Textielgoederen en Aanverwante Artikelen (Bpf TEX) also chose AZL as their administrator.

The firm currently provides administration services for 64 pension funds, which together provide the pensions for nearly one million participants.