Nearly half of this amount (46%), respectively RON932 million, was paid in 2023 alone.
Under the valid legislation, Pillar II makes payments to beneficiaries when the participant gets the retirement decision for the age limit from the public pension system; when the participant gets the retirement decision for invalidity from the public pension system (regardless of the degree of invalidity), as well as in the case of the participant’s death, in which case the asset accumulated by the participant in their Pillar II individual account is paid to their heirs at law.
The legislation also provides that the beneficiaries may cash their Pillar II money either as a lump-sum payment or as equal monthly payments scheduled along a five-year period at most (maximum 60 equal monthly payments).
Romanian employees transferred on average RON1.1 billion to Pillar II pension funds, each month of 2023, by contributing 3.75% of their monthly gross income for the private management of their retirement savings, in line with calculations by Ziarul Financiar (ZF) daily based on statistical data from Romania’s Financial Supervisory Authority, or ASF.
The latest data show for the first ten months of 2023 total transfers in the amount of RON10.6 billion invested by private pension managers mostly in state treasuries and stocks.
Private pension funds reached record assets of nearly RON118 billion at the end of October 2023, higher than RON96 billion in early 2023.