Over the first nine months this year, pension fund portfolios have grown steadily. The overall assets of Pillar 2 Pensions have increased by 10.25 % or EUR 206 million compared to the same period last year. In general, the managers of Pillar 2 Pension Funds are responsible for almost EUR 2.22 million, while the assets of Pillar 3 pensions have increased by EUR 22.9 million or 8 % compared to Q3 of 2014. The fastest growth is observed in the assets of Nordea Pension Plans.
The overall portfolio of pension funds under Nordea management has grown by 17 % compared to Q3 of 2014, reaching EUR 116.6 million. At the same time, if compared to the same period last year, among all Pillar 2 Pension Plans, the assets of Nordea Active Investment plans show the most rapid growth: by 21 % (EUR 80.5 million). An average Nordea Investment plan participant has accumulated EUR 3.2 thousand, which is a considerably larger sum than the average of EUR 1.78 thousand accumulated in Pillar 2 pensions.
“One of the main tasks of pension managers is to ensure long-term stability for the invested pension funds of customers. A successful fund management strategy enables Nordea customers to feel stable and confident about their investments, leading them to entrust us with their management”, says Ilja Arefjevs, Nordea Pensions Latvia Board Member.
In Pillar 3 pensions, Nordea Pension Plans show the fastest growth, as the assets of Nordea Balanced Pension Plan grew by 37 % and reached EUR 7.3 million, whereas the Nordea Progressive Pension Plan has grown by 33 % (EUR 4.1 million compared to Q 3 of 2014).
Overall, the growth of pension capital depends more on customers who have just started to make contributions into pension plans than on investment yields. In terms of yields, Conservative and Balanced Pension Plans have shown better performance, mainly because these plans protect the capital of participants against short-term cuts. The active plans have demonstrated moderately negative performance over the three quarters—a trend that may be explained if the fast and stable growth of previous years is taken into account.