Voluntary pension funds’ portfolio in March: 71% state securities, 15% deposits, 7% shares, 5% corporate bonds
The voluntary private pension funds (pillar III) had the following portfolio structure at the end of March: 71% state securities, 15% bank deposits, 7% shares, 5% traded corporate bonds and 2% mutual funds, according to the market’s quarterly report, published today by the Private Pension Supervisory Commission.
The report shows that the voluntary pension market diversified the investment portfolio significantly in the first quarter of this year, shifting the largest part of their investments from bank deposits to state securities. If at the end of last year, the funds invested 68% of their assets in bank deposits, waiting to reach a critical mass for diversifying the investments, the percentage for deposits at the end of March was only 15%. Over the same period, (the first quarter), the share of state securities and municipal bonds increased from 21% to 71%.
The shares listed at the Bucharest Stock Exchange represent approximately 7% of the aggregated portfolio of voluntary pensions. The report shows that the voluntary pension funds are more and more interested in traded corporate bonds, which reached 5.3% of the total net assets. The remaining almost 2% represents investments in mutual funds.
At the end of March, the voluntary pension funds had net assets of almost EUR 6.7 million, 72% higher than at the beginning of the year. The number of participants to this system increased by over 48% in the first quarter, reaching 75,423 participants.
