Private pension market registers growth in Q1

TIRANA, June 25 – Although in its initial stages, the private pension fund, with currently only three market operators, continued growing in the first quarter of 2012. Data published by the Albanian Financial Supervisory Authority show the private pension market rose by 25 percent to 193 million lek at the end of the first quarter 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 6,477 up from 6,295 at the end of 2011. The three companies report net profit of 2 million lek in the first quarter of 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.
In its latest report the European Commission concludes that there remains insufficient administrative capacity in the non-banking financial sector to enforce market surveillance and proper implementation of legislation.