“Many things have been said lately about Greece’s financial situation. According to data available on September 30, Pillar II and III pension funds do not have direct exposure to issuers in Greece. They have indirect exposure to Romanian banks with Greek capital, where deposits have been made. These banks are well capitalized,” Oancea told a news conference Monday.
End-September, 9.39% of mandatory funds’ net assets were placed in bank deposits. According to Oancea, only 2% of assets placed in bank deposits had exposure to Greek banks. Net assets on the mandatory segment (Pillar II) stand at 5.8 billion lei (about EUR1.34 billion).
On the voluntary private pension segment (Pillar III), 6.07% of net assets (which stood at RON328.61 million) were placed in bank deposits
Oancea said that 99% of pension funds’ assets invested in state treasuries are issued by the Romanian state.
According to CSSPP data, mandatory private pension funds registered profit of RON634.2 million between May 2008 and September 2011. The sum represents the difference between the value of assets (RON5.79 billion) and sums transferred to the National Pension House (RON5.16 billion).
End-September, assets on the Pillar II and III segments represented 1.14% of the estimated gross domestic product in 2011, according to CSSPP data.
Yield on Pillar II in 2011 is estimated at about 10%, said Oancea.
He added he hopes the level of contribution to Pillar II will rise from 3% to 6% by 2016.
The CSSPP president highlighted that the institution wants the level of contributions to mandatory private pension funds to increase to 8% by 2016. A proposition to this end has been sent to the Labor Ministry, he added. (EUR1=RON4.3329)