November 2021 Monthly Report

Overview of supervised entities’ activities in the financial services sector for November 2021

PENSION FUNDS

SECOND PILLAR PENSION FUNDS

At the end of November 2021, mandatory pension funds (MPFs) had 2,105,761 members, i.e. 5,182 (0.25%) more than in the previous month. Category B funds had 90.32% of members, category A 6.82% and category C 2.86% of all members of MPFs. Out of 6,513 new members, 6,256 (96.1%) were automatically assigned by Regos. Termination of membership due to retirement or death was recorded with respect to 1,331 insured persons, 1.2% more than in the previous month. Total net contributions paid to MPFs in November reached HRK 634.7m, while the amount totalling HRK 6.8bn has been paid to MPFs since the beginning of the year, 9.0% more than in the same period last year. Total payments from all the MPFs due to personal account closures in November reached HRK 181.4m, while total payments from the beginning of the year totalled HRK 1.7bn, an increase of 23.3% compared to the same period last year.

At the end of November 2021, net assets of MPFs increased by 0.3% on a monthly basis and stood at HRK 130.96bn. Monthly Mirex returns reached -0.3% for category A, 0.0% for category B, and -0.2% for category C. Year-to-date Mirex returns reached 10.9% for category C, 6.1% for category B and 0.4% for category A, while annualised returns since the beginning of MPFs’ operation reached 7.5% for Mirex A, 5.5% for Mirex B and 4.5% for Mirex C[1].

At the end of November, bond investments of MPFs totalled HRK 82.6bn (63.0% of total assets), making their share increase by 0.06 p.p. on a monthly basis. In the same period, the share of equity investments in the assets of MPFs rose by 0.3 p.p, amounting to HRK 26.7bn or 20.4% of MPFs’ assets. Investments in domestic shares accounted for 11.5%, while investments in foreign shares accounted for 9.0% of MPFs’ assets. As regards other investment types, investments in investment funds amounted to HRK 15.0bn (11.4% of the assets), making the proportion of these investments in total assets increase relative to the previous month (by 0.13 p.p.). Investments in cash and deposits amounted to 3.9% of the assets, or HRK 5.1bn, a 5.9% decrease compared to the previous month.

THIRD PILLAR PENSION FUNDS

In November 2021, the number of members of 8 open-ended voluntary pension funds (OVPFs) fell by 0.7%, while the number of members of 20 closed-ended voluntary pension funds (CVPFs) increased by 0.4%, making the number of members of these funds reach 345,999 and 45,788 respectively. Total monthly payment contributions made to voluntary pension funds (VPFs) in November amounted to HRK 78.9m, increasing by 26.6% compared to the previous month. At the same time, total monthly payments from these funds amounted to HRK 22.9m, a 2.9% decrease compared to the previous month. Out of all the payments made from the funds, 6.8% were due to death, 24.0% due to the change of fund and the rest of 69.82% due to retirement and other reasons. With respect to payments made due to retirement, the amount of HRK 5.9m was paid through a pension company (fund), HRK 5.5m were paid in the form of lump-sum payments, while the amount of HRK 4.3m was transferred for payment to pension insurance companies.

Net assets of VPFs grew by HRK 10.5m in November (0.314% on a monthly basis), reaching HRK 7.5bn, with monthly returns of individual funds ranging between -1.0% and -0.05%. Annual rates of return ranged from -0.51% to 12.74%, while year-to-date returns ranged from -0,41% to 10.47%. As regards the investment structure of VPFs, the largest part of the portfolio was made up of bonds and amounted to a 54.6% share in total net assets, followed by shares with a 25.2% share and investment funds with a 12.6% share. The share of bonds in VPFs’ investments decreased on the monthly basis by 0.1%, the equity share decreased by 0.6%, while the share of investments in investment funds increased by 0.3%.

INSURANCE COMPANIES

In November 2021, there were 15 insurance companies operating on the market. Their total gross written premium in the first 11 months of 2021 amounted to HRK 10.7bn, of which HRK 2.6bn (24.4%) related to life insurance premium and HRK 8.1bn (75.6%) to non-life insurance premium. On an annual basis, total gross written premium rose by 11.9%, with the increase in non-life insurance premium totalling 12.7%, and the rise in life-insurance premium reaching 9.5%. The structure of non-life insurance gross written premium was dominated by motor vehicle liability insurance (33.7%), followed by insurance of land motor vehicles (15.9%) and other property insurance lines (10.7%). The amount of claims settled reached HRK 6.5bn, increasing by 10.3% on an annual basis. HRK 2.63bn of this amount related to life insurance (a 5.7% increase on an annual basis), while HRK 3.85bn related to non-life insurance (a 13.7% increase on an annual basis). In the total amount of claims settled in non-life insurance in the first 11 months of 2021, the largest amounts relate to motor vehicle liability insurance (33.8%), insurance of land vehicles (18.6%), insurance against fire and natural disasters (13.8%) and other property insurance lines (12.5%).

CAPITAL MARKET

The total turnover on the Zagreb Stock Exchange reached HRK 149.4m in November 2021, decreasing by 62.9% compared with the previous month. Regular trading in shares amounted to HRK 130.3m (monthly decrease of 36.2%), while trading in bonds did not take place. Regular trading in ETFs amounted to HRK 3.4m (monthly increase of 83.3%). The order book turnover recorded a monthly decrease of 43.91%, while the OTC market turnover decreased by 58.8%. Market capitalisation decreased on the monthly level by 0.12%, and stood at HRK 271.62bn at the end of November, with an equal part of shares and bonds. As for stock indices, all of them recorded a monthly decrease. The smallest decrease was recorded by CROBEXindustrija (-1.89%) and CROBEXplus (-1.90%), while CROBEXtransport recorded the largest monthly decrease (-4.47%). Atlantska plovidba d.d. was the stock most traded in November, with its turnover amounting to HRK 23.67m (18.17% of the overall trade in stocks) and a monthly decrease in price of 13.8%.

INVESTMENT FUNDS

In November 2021, there were 93 UCITS operating on the market (one less than in October, as 1 fund from the category “Other” ceased to operate), with their total net assets amounting to HRK 21.6bn at the end of the month and decreasing by 0.57% compared to the previous month. The trend of positive net payments continued, amounting to HRK 10.1m. Positive net payments were recorded by all UCITS except bond funds, equity funds (HRK 29.7m), balanced funds (HRK 51.3m), feeder funds (HRK 38.9m) and funds categorised as other funds (HRK 55.2), while bond funds recorded negative net payments (HRK -165.0m). In November 2021, all UCITS categories apart from feeder funds recorded negative asset-weighted average monthly returns: equity funds -1.71%, funds categorised as other funds -0.71%, balanced funds -1.42%, feeder funds 0.38% and bond funds -0.64%. Bond funds’ net assets accounted for 71.0% of the total net assets of all UCITS at the end of November, while equity and balanced funds accounted for 10.9% and 6.6% of the total net assets of UCITS respectively. The assets of the Fund for Croatian Homeland War Veterans and Members of their Families amounted to HRK 978.2m (a monthly decrease of 1.9%), with the monthly return of the fund reaching -1.68%.

The full report is available at Publications/Monthly reports

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