CSSPP: Another 2-3 mandatory pension funds will exit the market by the end of this year
Another 2-3 mandatory pension funds (2nd pillar) will exit the market by the end of this year, through mergers and acquisitions, said Mircea OANCEA, president of CSSPP (Romania's private pensions market supervisory authority), to www.pensiileprivate.ro.
"We will probably end up with only ten funds on the mandatory pensions market in the next period, after 2-3 mergers by the end of this year alone", he stated. The mandatory pensions market already started a fast consolidation process two months ago, when the first funds exited the market by filing requests for the withdrawal of license by the CSSPP. The four smallest funds exited the market this way, stopping their losses and bringing the total number of funds down from 18 to 14. Now, 2-3 fund mergers could take place at the end of this year, and afterwards the market could only have 10 players, OANCEA estimates.
The Romanian mandatory pensions market could thus set a record pace in the field of consolidation among the similar systems in Central and Eastern Europe, with a race from 18 to 10 funds in just slightly more than a year. Just for comparison purposes, POLAND, the biggest 2nd pillar market in the CEE region, started in 1999 with 21 funds, which also survived during 2000, and afterwards went down to 17 funds in 2001 and to 15 nowadays.
05.07.2008
