Pillar II earnings better than average interest rate for deposits

The latter was calculated based on the latest monthly bulletin issued by the National Bank of Romania (BNR), and data was analyzed for July 2008-May 2009.

The latest report by the Romanian Pension Funds Association (APAPR) shows that Pillar II had 4.8 million subscribers at the end of last month, of which 4.4 million had at least one monthly contribution paid for by the National House of Pensions and Social Security (CNPAS). For a variety of reasons, no contribution from the state social security budget was paid for some 406,000 subscribers (8.5 percent).

During the 15 months since the Pillar II was launched, CNPAS paid a total RON 1.608 billion (€382.07 million) to private pension funds, while the Pillar II net assets rose to a total RON 1.705 billion (€404.8 mln).

“The difference between gross contributions paid and net assets managed by the [pension] funds is the net profit of subscribers, after all fees have been deducted and investment results have been added,” according to a press release of APAPR. In the first seven months of this year, the average yield of Pillar II was 8.89 percent.