Pensioenfonds ING, the pension fund of Dutch bank ING, has appointed Achmea Investment Management as its strategic advisor for impact investing, with an emphasis on investments in climate, health and nature themes in private markets.

Dutch-based Achmea IM said the move builds on existing collaboration between the two organisations, which have been working together on socially responsible investment since the second quarter 2024.

Maureen Schlejen, Achmea IM’s board chair, said the goals of the two organisations with regard to impact investing were very similar. She said Achmea IM would strive, together with its pension fund clients, for demonstrable impact alongside financial returns.

Wim van Iersel, Pensioenfonds ING’s executive director said that, in choosing to work with Achmea IM, the  fund was taking a further step towards greater sustainability of its investments.  The pension fund is a closed scheme with invested assets of some €26bn.

In January, Achmea IM announced it had formed a partnership with Amsterdam-based advisory firm Impact Orange Partners to collaborate on investment solutions contributing to the conservation and restoration of biodiversity.

Impact Orange Partners provides advice on impact analysis and fund selection, as well as impact measurement and monitoring. Achmea IM said the partnership underscored its strategy of collaboration to accelerate impact investing.

In 2024, Achmea IM formed a partnership with the pension fund of  Dutch-Belgian retail giant Ahold Delhaize, under which Achmea IM is providing strategic advice on integrating impact objectives into the fund’s €5.5bn investment portfolio.

Eric Huizing, chairman of the investment committee at Ahold Delhaize Pensioen, told Impact Investor in October that 5% of the fund’s investment portfolio would gradually be invested in impact funds. 

He said risk associated with impact investing would be mitigated through impact portfolio diversification across private equity, private debt, infrastructure and forestry/farmland, and other approaches.

Achmea IM had €206bn in assets under management for clients at the end of 2024.  The investment manager is part of the Achmea financial services group, which set a target last year of allocating at least 10% of its own risk investments, or around €4bn, to impact investments, calling on the know-how of Achmea IM and Achmea Real Estate. 

That move is in line with a call from the Netherlands Advisory Board on impact investing for the country’s pension funds, asset managers, insurance companies and banks to allocate at least 10% of their assets under management to impact investments by 2025.

Laure Wessemius-Chibrac, NAB’s managing director, told last November’s Impact Investor Conference in The Hague that there had been an evolution in thinking among institutional investors in recent years, which were now seeking to incorporate impact investing into their future strategies.