06/03/2023

January 2023 Monthly Report

Overview of supervised entities’ activities in the financial services sector for January 2023

PENSION FUNDS

SECOND PILLAR PENSION FUNDS

At the end of January 2023, mandatory pension funds (MPFs) had 2,183,840 members, i.e. 4,789 (0.22%) members more than in the previous month. Category B funds had 85.2% of all MPF members, while category A and category C funds had 11.0% and 3.9% of all MPF members respectively. Out of 5,986 new members, 5,845 (97.6%) were automatically assigned by Regos. Termination of membership due to retirement or death was recorded with respect to 1,197 insured persons. Total net contributions paid to MPFs in January amounted to EUR 90.1m (0.5% of net assets at the end of 2022). At the same time, total payments from all MPFs due to personal account closures reached EUR 16.8m (0.1% of net assets at end-2022), dropping by 15.8% compared to the previous month.

At the end of January 2023, net assets of MPFs amounted to EUR 17.9bn, rising by EUR 366.2m (2.1%) relative to the previous month. Nominal monthly Mirex returns reached 2.8% for category A, 1.8% for category B and 0.3% for category C. Annual Mirex returns reached -1.4% for category A, -3.1% for category B and -4.6% for category C, while annualised[1] returns since the beginning of MPFs’ operation stood at 6.6% for Mirex A, 5.0% for Mirex B and 3.3% for Mirex C[2].

Bond investments of MPFs totalled EUR 11.2bn (62.5% of total assets), making their share decrease by 0.9 p.p. on a monthly basis. The share of equity investments in MPFs’ assets increased by 0.9 p.p. on a monthly basis, amounting to 21.1% of MPFs’ assets (EUR 3.8bn). Investments in domestic shares accounted for 12.6%, while investments in foreign shares accounted for 8.5% of MPFs’ assets. As regards other investment types, investments in investment funds amounted to EUR 1.9bn (10.8% of their assets), making the proportion of these investments in total assets increase by 0.2 p.p. relative to the previous month. Investments in cash and deposits amounted to 4.8% of their assets, or EUR 858.2m.

THIRD PILLAR PENSION FUNDS

In January 2023, the number of members of 8 open-ended voluntary pension funds (OVPFs) rose by 0.2% on a monthly basis, while the number of members of 21 closed-ended voluntary pension funds (CVPFs) increased by 0.01%, making the number of members of these funds reach 375,569 and 47,713 respectively. Total monthly payments made to voluntary pension funds (VPFs) in January 2023 amounted to EUR 10.0m (0.9% of their net assets at end-December 2022), decreasing by EUR 28.1m compared to the previous month. Total payments made from these funds in January 2023 reached EUR 4.8m, rising by EUR 1.3m (35.8%) compared to total payments made from VPFs in the previous month. Total payments from VPFs made due to retirement and other reasons accounted for 70.5%, payments made due to the change of fund reached 25.1%, while those made due to death accounted for 4.4% of total payments in January 2023. As regards total payments made due to retirement, the amount of EUR 1.2m was paid in the form of lump-sum payments, EUR 1.2m was transferred to pension insurance companies, while EUR 1.0m was paid through a pension company (fund).

In January 2023, net assets of VPFs rose by EUR 25.1m (2.4% on a monthly basis) and stood at EUR 1.1bn. Monthly nominal returns of VPFs ranged from 0.3% to 3.1%, while returns on an annual basis ranged from -8.2% to -1.6%. As regards the investment structure of VPFs, the largest part of the portfolio was made up of bonds and amounted to a 54.1% share in total net assets, followed by stocks with a 25.0% share and investment funds with a 10.9% share. The share of bonds in VPFs’ investments decreased on a monthly basis by 0.3 p.p., while investments in shares and investment funds rose by 0.7 p.p.

PENSION INSURANCE COMPANIES (PICs)

At the end of the fourth quarter of 2022, there were two pension insurance companies operating on the market and covering 11,113 and 5,232 users in the area of mandatory and voluntary pension insurance respectively. Total assets of PICs amounted to EUR 373.2m at the end of the fourth quarter of 2022, rising by EUR 98.0m or 35.6% compared to the same period last year. Total pre-tax loss recorded by PICs in the fourth quarter of 2022 reached EUR 10.9m, while their profit recorded in the same period last year stood at EUR 0.8m. PICs’ performance was affected by an increase in inflation rate due to a legal obligation pursuant to which PICs are obliged to align the amount of pension with the rate of change in the consumer price index at least twice a year, for the previous half of the year.

CAPITAL MARKET

In January 2023, the total turnover on the Zagreb Stock Exchange reached EUR 19.7m, decreasing by 30.7% on a monthly basis. Market capitalisation increased slightly, by 1.2%, relative to the previous month and stood at EUR 34.8bn, of which stocks amounted to EUR 18.7bn, bonds to EUR 16.0bn and ETFs to 8m. As for stock indices, the largest monthly rise was recorded by CROBEXindustrija (10.8%), while CROBEXkonstrukt recorded the largest monthly decrease (-0.4%). A monthly increase was also recorded by the major ZSE stock indices CROBEX (6.6%) and CROBEX10 (6.8%), while bond indices recorded a monthly decline reaching -2.90% (CROBIS) and -1.7% (CROBIStr). HT d.d. was the stock most traded in January, with its turnover amounting to EUR 1.6m (11.3% of the overall stock trade in January) and a 3.2% monthly price increase.

INVESTMENT FIRMS

At the end of 2022, there were 23 legal entities authorised to provide investment services, namely 5 investment firms, 12 credit institutions and 6 investment fund management companies. The fourth quarter of 2022 saw a continued decline in the value of assets managed by investment firms (-3.1%) and credit institutions (-2.5%), while the value of assets managed by investment fund management companies rose compared to the previous quarter (by 4.5%). All the three categories recorded a decrease in the value of assets they manage on an annual basis, reaching -24.3% (credit institutions), -9.8% (investment firms) and -8.8% (investment fund management companies). Assets under the custody of investment firms grew by 14.6% compared to the previous quarter, while assets under the custody of credit institutions increased by 10.0%. On an annual basis, assets under the custody of investment firms rose by 13.5%, while assets under the custody of credit institutions decreased by 1.6%. The fourth quarter of 2022 saw the distribution of financial instruments in the amount of EUR 196.2m (a 4.8% increase compared to the previous quarter), 75.8% of which was accounted for by units of domestic UCITS, 13.7% by units of foreign UCITS, and the remaining 10.5% by foreign certificates and other foreign financial instruments.

INVESTMENT FUNDS

In January 2023, there were 101 UCITS operating on the market, one fund more than in the previous month, that belongs to the category of other funds. Total net assets of UCITS amounted to EUR 2.2bn at the end of the month, increasing by EUR 1.9m or 0.1% compared to the previous month. Total monthly net payments of all UCITS reached EUR -26.4m, primarily due to net payments made from bond funds (EUR -52.4m), while monthly net payments from funds were also recorded by feeder funds (EUR -1.5m) and balanced funds (EUR -0.4m). Positive net payments were recorded by funds belonging to the “other” category (EUR 24.6m) and equity funds (EUR 3.2m). Bond funds’ net assets accounted for 60.6% of UCITS total net assets at the end of January, while equity and balanced funds accounted for 12.9% and 6.7% of UCITS total net assets respectively. In January 2023, all types of UCITS recorded positive asset-weighted average monthly returns, namely equity funds 6.1%, feeder funds 3.1%, balanced funds 2.7%, other funds 1.7% and bond funds 0.3%.

Net assets of the Fund for Croatian Homeland War Veterans and Members of their Families amounted to EUR 131.75m (a 3.9% monthly increase), with the monthly return of the fund reaching 3.1%.

LEASING COMPANIES

At the end of the fourth quarter of 2022, total assets of 15 leasing companies stood at EUR 3.0bn, an increase of 12.8% on an annual basis. Pre-tax profit recorded by leasing companies fell by EUR 6.8m (13.0%) compared to the same period last year, amounting to EUR 45.8m. The outstanding contract value of active contracts recorded a 1.6% annual increase in the operating lease segment, while its annual increase in the finance lease segment reached 13.8%. In 2022, the value of newly concluded contracts in the operating lease segment rose by 10.6% relative to the same period last year, while this growth in the finance lease segment amounted to HRK 32.9%. This was mostly due to an increase in the value of contracts involving passenger cars (EUR 721.3m), commercial vehicles (EUR 283.2m) and plant, machinery and equipment (EUR 121.8m) as leased assets. The total value of newly concluded contracts in 2022 increased by EUR 1.4bn (29.4%) on an annual basis.

FACTORING COMPANIES

At the end of the fourth quarter of 2022, there were 4 factoring companies operating on the market. Their total assets amounted to EUR 31.6m, while their income before tax reached EUR 0.4m. The transaction volume was still dominated by classic factoring totalling EUR 68.0m (88.6% of all transactions), as were receivables, with classic factoring amounting to EUR 7.8m (82.2% of all receivables) at the end of the fourth quarter of 2022.

The full report is available at Publications/Monthly reports.

 

[1]The annualised return is the geometric average of annual returns realised in the period observed.

[2] Beginning of operation: MPF category B: 30/4/2002; MPFs category A and C: 21/08/2014

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