Elected committee for the Pension fund PUBLICA

Elected to this committee in Fall 2007 and then reelected for 2009-2012, I have been participating in the efforts needed so that our pension fund can evolve in a manner that preserves as much as possible the interests of EPFL’s employees. The passage from a defined benefits system to a defined contributions system freed the Federal Government from its long-time promises, by putting the burden of risk on the employees and the employer. The challenges that we encounter are many. The stock market crisis of 2008 was one of the first. Thanks to PUBLICA’s prudent investment policy, our pension fund has obtained a better performance than most other Swiss pension funds. A second challenge concerned the decrease in the pension conversion rate. Our committee succeeded in attenuating the impact of this change by preventing the decrease of our pensions while avoiding any increase in the employee monthly contributions. One of the next challenges concerns the long term rates of returns of our invested assets, which is a problem that is common to all pension funds. Our committee must formulate realistic objectives, while reminding our employer of its responsibilities to its employees. I feel that it would be useful to let all employees benefit from the legal, actuarial and financial experience that I have acquired during five years of work on this committee. In order to guarantee the continuity of our effort, I hope that the employees of EPFL will allow me to continue to serve the EPFL community for the next four years. Information concerning the activities of this elected committee can be found at http://organeparitairepublica.epfl.ch/