The Supervisory Board considered that the major financial crisis faced by the FRR and every other investor did not call into question the foundations of its initial choices. In other words, a long-term investor with no liquidity constraints before 2020 can afford to take lasting profit from the outperformance expected of asset classes which show significant volatility over the short term, equities in particular. After the market meltdown of 2008, it remains reasonable to expect and plan for a gradual reversion to the mean.

The Supervisory Board believes that, in light of current circumstances, the rollout of these guidelines should incorporate two new elements: the obligation between 2020 and 2040 of at least returning the real value of endowments received since inception, and the need to implement more dynamic management of the reference portfolio in order to better address short-term risks and market volatility, which remain substantial.

The new reference portfolio which, as in 2006, is based on the assumption that the payout will be constant between 2020 and 2040, has accordingly been built as follows:

The expected performance of this portfolio in the years to come is an estimated 6.3% per annum.

In order to facilitate the dynamic management of this portfolio, the Supervisory Board decided that the global weight of the most volatile performance assets (equities, real estate, commodities, for a total of 55% of the benchmark portfolio) could evolve within a broadly defined range of fluctuation that could be revised annually. The weight of performance assets could therefore vary between 40% and 60% until the next review, which will henceforth be carried out annually, of the implementation of the reference portfolio. Within this range of fluctuation, choices will be made based on the opinion of the Investment Strategy Committee, a sub-committee of the supervisory Board that will call on recognized external experts.

The Supervisory Board also reiterated the importance it attached to the resolute pursuit of the implementation of the responsible investor strategy that was adopted in 2008 for the 2008-2012 period.