Our history
The origins of PUBLICA date back to the Federal Insurance Fund. The insurance relationships were transferred to PUBLICA in 2003. Learn more about our history.
| 1906 | The Federal Council approves the articles of association of the pension and assistance fund for officers and employees of the Swiss Federal Railways. |
| 1911 | An agreement is reached to establish a “general federal administration assistance fund cooperative”. 1% of salaries are paid into the fund. |
| 1919 | After lengthy negotiations, the draft articles of association of an insurance fund for staff of the general federal administration, post, telephone and telegraph services are finalised. |
| 1921 | The Federal Insurance Fund (FIF) comes into being as an institution. |
| 1958 | Following the revision of the Swiss Civil Code, the staff pension fund is separated off from the employer company. |
| 1975 | The FIF becomes a federal office in its own right, attached to the Federal Department of Finance. The Federal Pension Fund (FPF) is a department of the FIF. |
| 2000 | The Federal Assembly adopts the Federal Act on the Federal Pension Fund (FPF Act). |
| 2001 | The Federal Council brings the FPF Act into force, establishing PUBLICA as a public-law institution with its own legal personality. |
| 2003 | On 1 June, the insurance relationships are transferred from the FPF to PUBLICA. The FIF ceases to exist as a federal office. |
| 2006 | The Federal Assembly adopts the PUBLICA Act. |
| 2008 | The Swiss Federal Pension Fund PUBLICA commences operations as a collective institution on 1 July. At the same time, it switches from a defined benefit to a defined contribution plan, and the technical interest rate is reduced to 3.5%. |
| 2010 | On 1 January, PUBLICA acquires employer status, with its own staff regulations and pension plan. Early in the year, the process-based management system used throughout the company is ISO 9001-certified. |
| 2012 | The changeover to new actuarial tables (BVG 2010, loaded) agreed in January 2011 to reflect current life expectancy and other factors is successfully implemented on 1 July. On 18 December, PUBLICA’s Board of Directors agrees to cut the technical interest rate to 2.75% with effect from 1 January 2015, in response to persistently low interest rates. |
| 2013 | PUBLICA celebrates ten years since its foundation |
| 2015 | In response to persistently low interest rates, PUBLICA reduces the technical interest rate to 2.75% for open pension plans and 2.25% for closed ones, with effect from 1 January. |
| 2016 | PUBLICA’s process-based management system is recertified according to ISO 9001:2015, on the basis of the new normative foundations. PUBLICA uses e-voting for the first time, in elections for the Assembly of Delegates. |
| 2018 | The Board of Directors resolves to employ realistic technical parameters, and takes a definitive decision on 29 January to reduce the technical interest rate to 2% for open pension plans and 1.25% for closed ones with effect from 1 January 2019. Also on 1 January 2019, PUBLICA changes over to a new set of actuarial tables (BVG 2015, static tables). |
| 2020 | Dr Doris Bianchi becomes the first female director of PUBLICA. PUBLICA elects its new Assembly of Delegates entirely by means of e-voting. |