The purpose of the funds managed by compenswiss is to compensate deficits and surpluses of the social insurance schemes. All financial flows of the social insurance system first pass through the Central Compensation Office, which reports to the Federal Department of Finance. The balances of these central social insurance accounts are then transferred to or debited from compenswiss. The cash flows are recorded in aggregate before being distributed to the individual funds of the three social insurance schemes (AHV, IV and EO).

Liquidity management

compenswiss centrally manages the liquidity of the three Social Security Funds. In its planning, the institution takes into account the financial flows and the major seasonal fluctuations, which have different structural causes for each of the social insurances. The management of the financial flows is based on detailed planning which ensures an appropriate level of liquidity for each of the three social security funds. In addition, compenswiss places part of its liquid assets with the Swiss National Bank (SNB), thus allowing these account balances to be exempt from negative interest.

The ability to tap into the Swiss repo market provides compenswiss with considerable short-term financing capacity. In addition, a securities-backed credit line of CHF 500 million with the SNB gives it even more scope to guarantee the solvency of the social security funds.

Results 2021

In 2021, the return on Treasury investments was –0.33% (compared to –0.09% in 2020). This figure should be seen in the context of historically low interest rates. Throughout the period, the SNB’s key interest rate was equivalent to –0.75%.

The financial flows of the social security funds showed significant positive budget deviations due to a unexpectedly fast economic recovery. Social security contributions increased more than expected, mainly benefiting the AHV.

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