The purpose of the funds managed by compenswiss is to compensate for deficits and surpluses in the social insurance schemes. All financial flows in the social insurance system first pass through the Swiss Compensation Office (SCO), 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 (OASI, InvI and LEC).

Liquidity management

compenswiss centrally manages the liquidity of the three social insurance schemes. In its planning, the institution takes account of financial flows and major seasonal fluctuations, which have different structural causes for each of the three social insurance schemes. The management of the financial flows is based on detailed planning which ensures an appropriate level of liquidity for each of the three social schemes. 

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 schemes.

Results 2023

In 2023, the return on the Treasury investments and cash equivalents was 1.50% (compared with –‍0.23% in 2022). The rise in short-term rates in CHF, which began in 2022 and continued in 2023, led to a significant improvement in the return on Treasury and cash equivalents. The performance of the Treasury thus reflects the average return on the SARON rate (Swiss Average Rate Overnight), the benchmark interest rate on the short-term market.

For the third year in a row, social insurance financial flows showed positive budgetary outturns. This was mainly due to revenue, which was higher than expected. On the one hand, social security contributions were higher than expected, which mainly benefited the OASI. On the other hand, the tax revenue balances (in favour of the OASI) and the Confederation's contribution balances (in favour of the InvI), both paid at the beginning of 2023, were largely positive. This is mainly due to stronger economic growth than initially expected when the monthly instalments for 2022 were set.

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