Liberal party stalwart Ed Nijpels is standing down as chairman of the management board at civil service pension fund ABP because of the investigation into the collapse of DSB bank last year.

Nijpels said in a letter to the ABP board he is resigning because he can no longer do his job properly. This is because of inaccurate leaks and the fact the official probe is taking longer than planned, he was reported by various newspapers as saying.
Nijpels was on the supervisory board of DSB from 2004. The bank collapsed last year after a run by savers following allegations of mis-selling.
The finance ministry launched an investigation into the bankruptcy late last year, which is partly focusing on the role of the supervisory board and what it knew about the mis-selling claims. The probe is not due to be completed until April at least, and has taken months longer than planned.
Former finance minister Gerrit Zalm, who was financial director of DSB and now CEO at nationalised bank ABN Amro is also under investigation.
Nijpels has been chairman of the third biggest pension fund in the world for the past seven months. He replaced Harry Borghouts, the queen’s commissioner in Noord-Holland province who resigned over the province’s lost €78m investments in Icelandic bank Icesave.