Emerging private pension market grows by 83%

TIRANA, Dec. 4 – Although in its initial stages, the private pension fund, with currently only three market operators, registered a sharp growth in 2012. Data published by the Albanian Financial Supervisory Authority show the private pension market rose by 83 percent to 283 million lek (Euro 2 million) at the end of 2012, up from 154 million lek at the end of 2011. The number of contributors in the three currently operating companies, Sigal Life Pension, Raiffeisen Pensions, and Sicred Pensions rose to 7,281 up 15.6 percent compared to 2011. The Supervisory Authority says the three market operators posted a total net profit of 63 million lek during 2012.
The non-banking financial sector, composed of financial institutions supervised by the central bank and the Financial Supervisory Authority, represented 4.7 percent of the GDP at the end of 2011 compared to 4.9 percent in December 2010. The sector is dominated by non-banking financial institutions whose assets account for 2.9 percent of the total, followed by insurance companies at 1.5 percent, credit-saving unions at 0.8 percent and the private pension funds at their initial stages representing only 0.01 percent of the GDP.