site.bta Actual Yield of All Pension Insurance Companies Positive

Actual Yield of All Pension Insurance Companies  Positive


Sofia, January 22 (BTA) - The actual yield of all pension
insurance funds from 2002 until the end of 2014 is positive,
meaning that it is below the inflation rate, Chief Executive
Director of the Doverie pension insurance company Daniela
Petkova said during a meeting of the parliamentary Labour and
Social Policy Committee on Wednesday.

Representatives of pension insurance companies had been invited
to a hearing in Parliament on the recent and planned changes in
the pension insurance system.

Petkova said that the yield is not negative, as claimed but
some, and is 0.5 per annum. "It may be that this turns out to be
the best managed money in Bulgaria," she said, calling for an
end to speculative statements on the matter.

Angel Djaluzov of the Financial Supervision Commission said that
the supervision over pension funds is constant. He said that
since 2003 to date there is not a calendar year when all nine
pension insurance companies had not been inspected. In 2011 to
2014 the Commission issued 302 penalty decrees, and 356 in
2003-2010. The administrative penalties in 2003 to 2012 were 17,
and in 2011 to 2014, 44.

Djaluzov said that although the Commission is not entitled to
legislative initiative, there have been several proposals for
legal amendments in the past few years. One amendment suggests
phased gradual reduction of up to 40 per cent of the fees for
account management, which at the moment is up to five per cent
of the annual value. The proposal was made on the basis of
actuarial calculations. The proposed reduction would increase
the funds in the accounts by 20 per cent over a period of 40
years.

Another proposed amendment relates to the introduction of a
second pension product with a lower investment risk, by having a
system of multi-funds in the second pillar.

Chairman of the Bulgarian Association of Companies for
Supplementary Pension Insurance Nikola Abadjiev said that the
last such hearing was in 2008. He said that at the time, the
assets of the companies totalled 2,400 million leva, while now
the figure us about 8,000 million leva, 1,300 million leva from
which from yields.

The pension funds representatives said that the upcoming
meetings about the pension reform in the Labour and Social
Policy Ministry should reconsider the changes in respect of
universal pension funds made at the end of 2014.