The performance of the private pension market in Romania turned out to be remarkable under the very difficult conditions in the economy and on financial markets, says Crinu Andanut, chairman of the Association of Privately Managed Pensions in Romania (APAPR). The managers of the Pillar II (mandatory private pension) funds achieved an average yield of 7% in the first half, slightly higher than the voluntary pension funds (Pillar III) yield of 6.94%. These results were achieved at a minimal risk for participants, considering more than half of the investment portfolios of the managers comprise government securities, the safest and most prudent investment instruments, at the moment.

Mandatory private pension funds’ investments in government securities accounted for 55% of the total investments six months into the year, while corporate investments got 26.6% of the managers’ investments. ”We behave like a group when investing, which is why investment portfolios are so much alike. Too much alike for my taste,” Andanut says. As far as he and the other managers on the market are concerned, both the courage or and the options to create ”bold” portfolios are lacking now, otherwise investments in stocks would account for a significant percentage of the total, approximately 20 or 30% or more. According to Dorin Boboc, investment manager of Allianz-}iriac, we should not expect big changes over the next three to five years. The hierarchy and weight of investment instruments will remain very similar to what we are seeing now. He adds that until then, one of the new elements to generate diversity is that funds now have the option of investing in foreign government securities, which, in most cases, provide better yields than the Romanian securities. An encouraging, though not that visible, sign is the shift of funds towards new growth drivers compared with the end of last year: from government securities and bank accounts, they are now more open to investments in bonds issued by companies and shares. This openness was accompanied by a cautious strategy, focused on getting very good yields at minimum risk.

TRADUCERE DE LOREDANA FRATILA-CRISTESCU SI DANIELA STOICAN