1.0Faces Onlinehttps://faces-online.nl/en/Asset Financialshttps://faces-online.nl/en/author/elleke-bender/rich600338<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content" data-secret="SpOo08BCyf"><a href="https://faces-online.nl/en/interview-erik-jan-van-bergen/">Interview Erik-Jan van Bergen</a></blockquote><iframe sandbox="allow-scripts" security="restricted" src="https://faces-online.nl/en/interview-erik-jan-van-bergen/embed/#?secret=SpOo08BCyf" width="600" height="338" title="“Interview Erik-Jan van Bergen” — Faces Online" data-secret="SpOo08BCyf" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" class="wp-embedded-content"></iframe><script type="text/javascript"> /* <![CDATA[ */ /*! This file is auto-generated */ !function(d,l){"use strict";l.querySelector&&d.addEventListener&&"undefined"!=typeof URL&&(d.wp=d.wp||{},d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage||(d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage=function(e){var t=e.data;if((t||t.secret||t.message||t.value)&&!/[^a-zA-Z0-9]/.test(t.secret)){for(var s,r,n,a=l.querySelectorAll('iframe[data-secret="'+t.secret+'"]'),o=l.querySelectorAll('blockquote[data-secret="'+t.secret+'"]'),c=new RegExp("^https?:$","i"),i=0;i<o.length;i++)o[i].style.display="none";for(i=0;i<a.length;i++)s=a[i],e.source===s.contentWindow&&(s.removeAttribute("style"),"height"===t.message?(1e3<(r=parseInt(t.value,10))?r=1e3:~~r<200&&(r=200),s.height=r):"link"===t.message&&(r=new URL(s.getAttribute("src")),n=new URL(t.value),c.test(n.protocol))&&n.host===r.host&&l.activeElement===s&&(d.top.location.href=t.value))}},d.addEventListener("message",d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage,!1),l.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded",function(){for(var e,t,s=l.querySelectorAll("iframe.wp-embedded-content"),r=0;r<s.length;r++)(t=(e=s[r]).getAttribute("data-secret"))||(t=Math.random().toString(36).substring(2,12),e.src+="#?secret="+t,e.setAttribute("data-secret",t)),e.contentWindow.postMessage({message:"ready",secret:t},"*")},!1)))}(window,document); //# sourceURL=https://faces-online.nl/wp-includes/js/wp-embed.min.js /* ]]> */ </script> http://faces-online.nl/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Faces-banner-ter-vervanging.jpg1200628What did you study and what has your career been like so far? I studied Business Econometrics with great pleasure in Tilburg from 1986 to 1991, when the university was still called the Catholic University of Brabant. I still encounter the benefits. After my studies I started working for Nationale Nederlanden, at the Securities and Loans department, in The Hague from 1991 to 2004. Here I had a number of different functions over the years, which always had to do with asset management. Then I started working at Citigroup, a major U.S. bank, in London. This was again in the field of asset management. I stayed there for five years. In 2009 I returned with my family to The Netherlands and started in my current position as Director of Investments at SNS REAAL. What is asset management exactly? Asset management is the management of money by investing it. If you do not need your money in daily business for a longer period of time, you need to do something with it. Actually, you are going to store it in order to use it later on again. You can put it in a savings account, which is a very simple form of investing. What is more complicated, is investing your money in bonds, equities, hedge funds and the like. How has your interest in asset management originated? I have always liked investing a lot.  I still remember those days that I had to cycle ten kilometers to elementary school.  In winter, when I got home from school, I was always reading the newspaper well on the warm radiator and I saw all those stock price numbers. For me, investing is a kind of game in which you can measure yourself relative to others to see who is ending up as the best and the brightest. I have liked this since childhood already. What does a typical day look like for you? On a typical day I go out of bed around half past six, and then I always try to make breakfast for my family. I really enjoy this and I find it very important. At half past seven I get on my bike to Den Bosch Central Station, where I catch a train to Utrecht. While travelling by train, I try to read the Financial Times. That is what I particularly like about my job, that you will find at least three things related to asset management on every page. I arrive in Utrecht around half past eight, and then I always try to have one hour of no meetings, so that I can have a look at what is happening exactly in the markets. Thereafter, I am usually in meetings until five o’clock. In these meetings a lot of things are tuned with clients and other people within the company, such that Asset Management is running smoothly. It is usually quiet again around five o’clock, and with a bit of luck I am back home at seven. What does SNS REAAL Asset Management look like exactly? We manage three sorts of money. The first is money received from an insurer, for instance when a small entrepreneur insures his pension with an insurance company. This money is taken together, which we call insurance money. Insurance money should serve as pensions in twenty to forty years from now, and in the meantime we have to invest it in a way that the small entrepreneur can enjoy a carefree retirement later on. The second sort of money is received from investment funds. Bank and insurer customers put money in the funds, which is managed by Asset Management. An example is the Nederlandse Aandelenfonds, which only contains equities that are listed on the AEX. We also manage an American equities fund, containing equities listed in the S&P 500. The horizon with which we invest the money from investment funds is long-term, but we have to take into account that it could be short-term as well. Third, we have got money from pension funds who outsource a part of their asset management to us. Sometimes we manage their complete investment money, sometimes only part of it. In total, SNS manages about 45 billion euros. SNS is in the top ten in The Netherlands, if you consider the size of assets under management. How do you earn your profits? We do this by hiring smart people and making structured investments. We believe that ‘behavioral finance’ theories often work very well. Due to the fact that many other investors exhibit herd behavior, we often manage to recognize systematic behavioral patterns and make use of this in a clever way. This allows us to make an extra return. We do not make purely use of science. All in all, investing is partly science and partly discipline, and the interplay herein is very important. We also find it very important that you know well what you do not know. For example, we also manage U.S. equity portfolios. We choose not to follow the U.S. market from Utrecht, but to outsource this to a U.S. equity manager who is good at his job. What was the nationalization process of SNS like? This was a long process. SNS is one of the Dutch system banks. Eventually, it was decided to nationalize. This was a very difficult process, because a bank is not intended to be state-owned. It is therefore the intention to regain our independence quickly. The root cause of the problem was that we did an acquisition of Property Finance seven years ago, which went the wrong way. For us it is important that the nationalization has not changed anything for our customers. In the entire industry banks face the same problem: customer trust must be recovered. Trust comes on foot and leaves on horseback. The most important thing we have to do now is be very humble, repair our mistakes and listen very carefully to what can be improved.  It may take several years before we will