Swiss Federal Pension Fund PUBLICA

13 june – A new term of office for PUBLICA’s Board of Directors begins on 1 July 2025. There are new members on both the employer and employee sides. The Board of Directors is PUBLICA’s strategic management body.

24 April 2025 – The Swiss Federal Pension Fund PUBLICA is publishing its annual report and sus-tainability report for 2024. At the end of 2024, the collective institution’s funded ratio stood at 104.6%. The investment performance was 5.9%. In responsible investment, efforts to enhance transparency are having an impact.

15 march 2025 – US trade policy is unsettling the stock markets, and this is having an impact on PUBLICA’s equity investments. PUBLICA has been underweighting US stocks for some time already. Its broadly diversified portfolio and conservative strategic asset allocation are having a stabilising effect and limiting losses. Current pensions are not at risk. It is impossible at present to predict what the funded ratio will be at the end of 2025.

27 January 2025 – The Swiss Federal Pension Fund PUBLICA posted a net investment return of 5.9% in 2024, consolidated across all pension plans. The biggest contributor was equities, followed by precious metals. Other positive performers included real estate Switzerland and private infrastructure equities, with foreign real estate and some foreign bonds on the negative side. All pension plans had a funded ratio in excess of 100% at the end of 2024.

12 december 2024 – Under the current provisions of the pension plan regulations and PUBLICA’s Corporate and Organisational Regulations, the interest rate on regulatory retirement assets is set every year by each pension plan’s parity commission. Each year, the Federal Council sets the minimum interest rate for retirement assets in the compulsory portion of the occupational pension. For 2024, the rate is 1.25%.

22 November 2024 – Effective 1 July 2025, Sandro Doudin becomes the new Head of Asset Management and a member of the Executive Board at PUBLICA. He is an investment expert, and is currently Head of Investment Strategy Development at the Pension Institution of the Federal and State Governments (VBL) in Karlsruhe. Sandro Doudin takes over from Stefan Beiner, who is leaving PUBLICA at the end of February 2025.

8. November 2024 – Am 6. November 2024 wählten die versicherten Personen von PUBLICA, wie alle vier Jahre, eine neue Delegiertenversammlung (80 Delegierte). Gewählt wurde in drei Wahlkreisen und ausschliesslich mittels E-Voting. Die Delegierten wählen jeweils jene acht Arbeitnehmenden, die in der Kassenkommission Einsitz nehmen. Die Kassenkommission ist das oberste paritätisch zusammengesetzte Führungsorgan der Pensionskasse des Bundes PUBLICA.

1 November 2024 – In 2024, PUBLICA has analysed in depth the trends and motives behind the rise in lump-sum withdrawals. Our “Annuity or lump sum?” study, published today, highlights the changes over the last ten years in the way people choose to draw their retirement assets when they stop working. It shows that more and more pension fund members, in Switzerland generally and at PUBLICA in particular, are opting for a lump-sum payout. Between 2013 and 2023, the proportion choosing a partial or full lump-sum withdrawal rose sharply. Key factors influencing their decision include tax considerations, a wish to implement their own investment strategy, and a direct need for capital to, for example, pay a mortgage.

27 august 2024 – Exercising additional voting rights and integrating ESG (environmental, social and governance) criteria into its securities portfolio and direct real estate investments are just two of the ways in which PUBLICA continues to enhance its responsible investment activities.