The net assets of mandatory pension funds (OMF) at the end of January 2024 amounted to €20.5 billion, which is €293 million or 1.5 percent more than in the previous month, shows the monthly report of the Croatian Financial Services Supervisory Agency (Hanfa), published last Tuesday.

The OMFs had a total of 2,255,736 members at the end of January, 6,911 members or 0.31 percent more compared to December 2023. In January, the OMFs registered 7,940 new members, with the vast majority, 97.8 percent, automatically assigned by Regos (Central Register of Insured Persons).

Due to retirement or death, the membership of 1,029 insured persons ended in January.

The total net contributions paid to mandatory pension funds amounted to €113.7 million, and the total amount of payments upon closing personal accounts from all OMFs was €22.2 million, or €13.2 million less compared to December 2023.

According to Hanfa data, the nominal monthly yield at the end of January for Category A mandatory pension funds amounted to 1.8 percent, for Category B mandatory pension funds it was 1.1 percent, and for Category C mandatory pension funds 0.1 percent. Annual returns were also positive for all three categories – Category A saw a growth of 13.7 percent, Category B of 9.4 percent, and Category C of 3.8 percent. The annualised returns since the beginning of the operation of the OMFs have also been positive, and for Category A they amount to 7.3 percent, for Category B 5.2 percent and for Category C 3.3 percent.

At the end of January, bonds were still the dominant form of investment in the structure of OMFs, amounting to 12.6 billion euros, a share of 61.6 percent, down 1.4 percentage points on a monthly basis.

At the same time, the share of investments in shares increased by 0.5 percentage points, and at the end of January they totalled €4.7 billion, or 22.7 percent of the assets of OMFs.

As for other forms of investment, investments in investment funds totalled €2.2 billion, a share of 10.8 percent at the level of all mandatory pension funds, show Hanfa’s data for the second pension saving pillar (based on individual capitalised savings).

Net assets of voluntary pension funds up €15.4m

At the end of January, there were eight open voluntary pension funds (ODMF) in Croatia, and they had 396,354 members, and 21 closed voluntary pension funds (ZDMF), with 48,675 members.

Total monthly payments to voluntary pension funds (DMF) amounted to €11.5 million, 72.8 percent less than the previous month. At the same time, total monthly payments by those funds reached €6.2 million, €2.2 million or 55 percent more compared to the previous month.

The net assets of the DMFs in January thus reached €1.3 billion, which is €15.4 million or 1.2 percent more on a monthly basis.

In the case of DMF investments, the largest part of the portfolio consists of bonds, with a share of 53.9 percent in total net assets, followed by stocks, with 25.6 percent, and investment funds, with 10.1 percent.

Collected premium of insurance companies in January €132.3m

In January 2024, a total of 14 insurance companies were active. The total collected premium in the first month of this year was €132.3 million, of which €23.9 million was life insurance premiums, and €115.4 million non-life insurance premiums.

In the structure of collected non-life insurance premiums, the most represented is motor vehicle liability insurance (37.2 percent), followed by road vehicle insurance (18.6 percent) and fire and natural damage insurance (nine percent).

The amount of liquidated damages in January 2024 was €95.2 million. Of that amount, €26.1 million were related to life insurance, and €69.1 million euros to non-life insurance.

In the total amount of liquidated claims in non-life insurance, liability insurance for the use of motor vehicles accounts for 40.4 percent, road vehicle insurance 20.5 percent, and fire and natural forces insurance 12.6 percent.

Among other things, Hanfa reported that the total net assets of 108 UCITS funds (open investment funds with public offering) that operated in Croatia in January, amounted to €2.4 billion at the end of the month, €85.8 million or 3.8 percent higher than the previous month.

The net assets of the Fund of Croatian Homeland War Veterans and their family members at the end of January amounted to €150.5 million, with the fund’s monthly yield amounting to 2.2 percent.

Last year’s profit of leasing companies was €52m

Hanfa also published last year’s data on leasing companies, of which 15 operated in Croatia at the end of 2023, with their total assets amounting to €3.5 billion, an increase of 18.8 percent compared to the end of the previous year.

At the same time, the total profit of leasing companies jumped on an annual basis, by 39.4 percent, to €52 million.

Hanfa reported that year-on-year the contracted value of active contracts increased by 28.5 percent for operational leasing, and by 19.6 percent for financial leasing. The value of newly concluded contracts increased by 55.3 percent on an annual basis for operational leasing, while the annual growth for financial leasing was 22.4 percent, according to Hanfa’s report.