TIRANA, May 26 – Net asset value in the emerging private pension market rose to around 685 million lek (Euro 4.8 million) at the end of the first quarter of 2015, registering a 9 percent increase compared to the final quarter of 2014, according to data published by the country’s Financial Supervisory Authority.
Meanwhile, total membership in the three operating pension funds, Sigal Life Pension, Raiffeisen Pensions, and Sicred Pensions rose by 14.4 percent to 9,715 compared to the end of 2014.
Raiffeisen Invest, which is a subsidiary of Raiffeisen Bank, the country’s biggest commercial bank, was the only operator to post profits of 254 million lek (Euro 1.8 million) in 2014.
Meanwhile, Sigal and Sicred, two Albanian-Austrian and Turkish-Albanian joint ventures, posted losses at the end of 2014.
The voluntary private pension market holds less than 0.1 percent of financial system assets and aims at supplementing pensions offered under the government’s obligatory scheme.
Starting this year, contributions in the emerging private pension market have been stripped of the personal income tax, benefiting more than 9,000 members of the private pension funds.
