February 2024 Monthly Report

SECOND PILLAR PENSION FUNDS

At the end of February 2024, mandatory pension funds (MPFs) had 2,260,083 members, i.e. 4,347 (0.19%) members more than in the previous month. Category B funds had 80.5% of all MPF members, while category A and category C funds had 14.8% and 4.7% of all MPF members respectively. Out of 5,334 new members, 5,179 (97.1%) were automatically allocated by Regos. Termination of membership due to retirement or death was recorded with respect to 988 insured persons. Total net contributions paid to MPFs in February amounted to EUR 113.9m (0.6% of net assets at the end of January). At the same time, total payments from all MPFs due to personal account closures reached EUR 16.4m (0.1% of net assets at the end of January), decreasing by EUR 5.7m compared to the previous month.

Net assets of MPFs amounted to EUR 20.8bn, rising by EUR 0.2bn (1.2%) relative to the previous month. Nominal monthly Mirex returns reached 1.1% for category A, 0.9% for category B and -0.02% for category C. Annual Mirex returns reached 14.1% for category A, 10.1% for category B and 4.4% for category C, while annualised^[1] returns since the beginning of MPFs’ operation stood at 7.4% for Mirex A, 5.3% for Mirex B and 3.3% for Mirex C^[2].

MPFs’ bond investments totalled EUR 12.8bn (61.4% of total assets), making their share decrease by 0.2 p.p. on a monthly basis. The share of equity investments in MPFs’ assets increased by 0.5 p.p. on a monthly basis, amounting to 23.3% of MPFs’ total assets (EUR 4.8bn). Investments in domestic shares accounted for 13.9%, while investments in foreign shares accounted for 9.4% of MPFs’ assets. Investments in investment funds reached EUR 2.2bn (10.8% of assets), increasing by 0.01 p.p. relative to the previous month. Investments in cash and deposits amounted to EUR 760.4m, i.e. 3.8% of MPFs’ assets.

THIRD PILLAR PENSION FUNDS

At the end of February 2024, the number of members of 8 open-ended voluntary pension funds (OVPFs) rose by 0.6% on a monthly basis, while the number of members of 21 closed-ended voluntary pension funds (CVPFs) increased by 0.2%, making the number of members of these funds reach 398,849 and 48,752 respectively. Total monthly payments made to voluntary pension funds (VPFs) in February amounted to EUR 10.4m (0.8% of their net assets at end-January 2024), decreasing by 9.3% compared to the previous month. Total payments made from these funds reached EUR 6.3m, rising by EUR 0.2m (2.9%) compared to payments made from VPFs in the previous month. Total payments from VPFs made due to retirement and other reasons accounted for 72.4%, payments made due to the change of fund reached 24.2%, while those made due to death accounted for 3.4% of total payments. As regards payments made due to retirement, the amount of EUR 1.4m was paid through a pension company (fund), the amount of EUR 1.8m was paid in the form of lump-sum payments, while the amount of EUR 1.4m was transferred for payment to pension insurance companies.

In February, VPFs’ net assets increased by EUR 9.2m (0.7% on a monthly basis) and stood at EUR 1.3bn. Monthly nominal returns of VPFs ranged from -0.2% to 2.2%, while returns on an annual basis ranged from 3.5% to 16.7%. As regards the investment structure of VPFs, the largest part of the portfolio was made up of bonds and amounted to a 53.9% share in total net assets, followed by stocks with a 25.9% share and investment funds with a 10.6% share. The share of bonds in VPFs’ investments increased on a monthly basis by 1.1 p.p., the equity share rose by 0.3 p.p., while the share of investments in investment funds rose by 0.4 p.p.

INSURANCE COMPANIES

In February 2024, there were 14 insurance companies operating on the market. Their total premium collected in the first two months of 2024 amounted to EUR 287.0m, of which EUR 48.7m (17.0%) related to life insurance premium and EUR 238.3m (83.0%) to non-life insurance premium. The structure of the non-life insurance premium collected is dominated by motor vehicle liability insurance (36.5%), followed by insurance of land vehicles (19.1%) and insurance against fire and natural disasters (9.7%). The amount of claims settled in the first two months of 2024 reached EUR 219.9m. EUR 85.4m of this amount related to life insurance (38.9%), while EUR 134.5m related to non-life insurance (61.1%). Within the total amount of claims settled in non-life insurance, the largest amounts related to motor vehicle liability insurance (41.4%), insurance of land vehicles (21.1%), and insurance against fire and natural disasters (10.4%).

CAPITAL MARKET

The total turnover on the Zagreb Stock Exchange reached EUR 35.1m in February 2024, increasing by 9.9% on a monthly basis. Market capitalisation increased by 2.2% relative to the previous month, and stood at EUR 43.0bn, of which stocks amounted to EUR 24.0bn, bonds to EUR 17.9bn, money market instruments to 1.1bn and ETFs to 35m. As for sectoral stock indices, CROBEXindustrija recorded the highest monthly increase of 7.6%, while CROBEXkonstrukt recorded the highest monthly decrease of -4.9%. The main ZSE stock index CROBEX recorded a monthly increase, same as CROBEXtr (2.3% both).  Bond index CROBIS recorded a monthly decrease (-0.04%), while CROBIStr increased by 0.2%. Zagrebačka banka d.d. was the stock most traded in February, with its turnover amounting to EUR 3.2m (11.6% of the overall trade in stocks in February). Its value recorded a monthly decrease (-1.7%).

INVESTMENT FUNDS

In February 2024, there were 108 UCITS operating on the market. Total net assets of UCITS amounted to EUR 2.4bn at the end of the month, increasing by EUR 41.1m or 1.7% relative to the previous month. Bond funds’ net assets accounted for 37.2% of the total net assets of all UCITS at the end of February, while equity and balanced funds accounted for 16.4% and 11.1% of the total net assets of UCITS respectively. Total net payments of all UCITS in February were positive, amounting to EUR 67.8m. Positive monthly net payments were recorded by money market funds (EUR 46.1m), funds categorised as “other funds” (EUR 24.0m) and equity funds (EUR 5.7m), while negative monthly net payments were recorded by balanced funds (EUR -1.8m), feeder funds (EUR -2.7m) and bond funds (EUR -19.3m). In February 2024, all categories of UCITS except money market funds recorded positive asset-weighted average monthly returns, namely equity funds 0.8%, feeder funds 0.1%, “other“ funds 1.2%, balanced funds 0.8% and bond funds 0.9%, while these returns for money market funds stood at -0.5%. Average annual asset-weighted returns amounted to 7.4% for equity funds, 5.9% for balanced funds, 15.4% for “other” funds, 2.5% for feeder funds and 9.5% for bond funds.

The net assets of the Fund for Croatian Homeland War Veterans and Members of their Families amounted to EUR 150.5m (a 0.5% monthly decrease), with the monthly return of the fund reaching -0.4%.

The full report is available at Statistics/Monthly reports.