September 2024 Monthly Report

PENSION FUNDS

SECOND PILLAR PENSION FUNDS

At the end of September 2024, mandatory pension funds (MPFs) had 2,317,445 members, i.e. 10,315 (0.45%) members more than in the previous month. Category B funds had 78.2% of all MPF members, while category A and category C funds had 17.5% and 4.3% of all MPF members respectively. Out of 12,432 new members, 12,198 (98.1%) were automatically allocated by Regos. Termination of membership due to retirement or death was recorded with respect to 2,117 insured persons. Total net contributions paid to MPFs in September amounted to EUR 131.1m (0.6% of net assets at end-August). At the same time, total payments from all MPFs due to personal account closures reached EUR 34.6m (0.2% of net assets at end-August), rising by EUR 5.2m compared to the previous month.

At the end of September 2024, MPFs’ net assets amounted to EUR 22.4bn, rising by EUR 0.2bn (1.1%) relative to the previous month. Nominal monthly Mirex returns reached 1.1% for category A, 0.6% for category B and 0.6% for category C. Annual Mirex returns reached 14.7% for category A, 10.7% for category B and 5.5% for category C. Year-to-date returns reached 10.3% for category A, 7.0% for category B and 2.6% for category C, while annualised^[1] returns since the beginning of MPFs’ operation reached 7.7% for Mirex A, 5.4% for Mirex B and 3.4% for Mirex C^[2].

At the end of September, bond investments of MPFs totalled EUR 13.7bn (61.1% of total assets), making their share increase by 0.2 p.p. on a monthly basis. The share of equity investments in MPFs’ assets decreased by 0.2 p.p. on a monthly basis, amounting to 22.9% of MPFs’ assets (EUR 5.1bn) at the end of September 2024. Investments in domestic shares accounted for 13.8%, while investments in foreign shares accounted for 9.1% of MPFs’ assets. Investments in investment funds amounted to EUR 2.2bn (9.7% of the 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 4.0% of the assets, or EUR 900.3m.

THIRD PILLAR PENSION FUNDS

At the end of September 2024, the number of members of 8 open-ended voluntary pension funds (OVPFs) rose by 0.4% on a monthly basis, while the number of members of 21 closed-ended voluntary pension funds (CVPFs) decreased by 37, making the number of members of these funds reach 410,851 and 49,108 respectively. Total monthly payments made to voluntary pension funds (VPFs) in September 2024 amounted to EUR 10.2m (0.8% of net assets at end-August), increasing by 19.4% compared to the previous month. Total payments made from these funds reached EUR 4.3m, increasing by EUR 0.4m (10.2%) compared to total payments made from VPFs in the previous month. Total payments from VPFs made due to retirement and other reasons accounted for 68.4%, payments made due to the change of fund reached 27.9%, while those made due to death accounted for 3.7% of total payments in September. As regards total payments made due to retirement, the amount of EUR 1.4m was paid through a pension company (fund), the amount of EUR 0.9m was paid in the form of lump-sum payments, while the amount of EUR 0.5m was transferred for payment to pension insurance companies.

In September 2024, net assets of VPFs increased by EUR 13.7m (1.0% on a monthly basis) and stood at EUR 1.4bn. Monthly nominal returns of VPFs ranged from -0.1% to 0.8%, while returns on an annual basis ranged from 4.0% to 15.3%. VPFs’ year-to-date returns ranged from 2.1% to 10.6%. As regards the investment structure of VPFs, the largest part of the portfolio was made up of bonds and amounted to a 55.5% share in total net assets, followed by stocks with a 26.0% share and investment funds with a 9.2% share. The share of bonds in VPFs’ investments increased on the monthly basis by 0.9 p.p., the equity share fell by 0.3 p.p., while the share of investments in investment funds held steady.

INSURANCE COMPANIES

In September 2024, there were 14 insurance companies operating on the market. The total premium collected in the first nine months of 2024 amounted to EUR 1.4bn, of which EUR 247.6m (17.4%) related to life insurance premium and EUR 1.2bn (82.6%) to non-life insurance premium. The structure of the non-life insurance premium collected is dominated by motor vehicle liability insurance (36.3%), followed by insurance of road vehicles (18.7%), and insurance against fire and natural disasters (9.4%). The value of claims settled in the first nine months of 2024 reached EUR 924.4m. EUR 397.8m (36.6%) of this amount related to life insurance, while EUR 586.6m (63.4%) related to non-life insurance. In the total amount of claims settled in non-life insurance, the largest amounts related to motor vehicle liability insurance (40.4%), insurance of road vehicles (21.9%), and insurance against fire and natural disasters (8.7%).

CAPITAL MARKET

The total turnover on the Zagreb Stock Exchange reached EUR 27.9m in September 2024, increasing by 11.0% on a monthly basis. Market capitalisation increased by 1.6% relative to the previous month and stood at EUR 47.4bn, of which stocks amounted to EUR 25.5bn, bonds to EUR 18.8bn, money market instruments to EUR 3.1bn and ETFs to 62m. As regards sectoral stock indices, the largest monthly growth (1.6%) was recorded by CROBEXtransport, while CROBEXnutris recorded the largest monthly decline (-2.2%). The main ZSE stock indices (CROBEX and CROBEX10) also recorded a monthly decrease (of 0.2%). The CROBIS bond index recorded a 0.6% monthly increase, while CROBIStr rose by 0.8%. KONČAR D&ST d.d. was the stock most traded in September, with its turnover amounting to EUR 2.3m (12.5% of the overall trade in stocks in September) and a 0.6% monthly price increase.

INVESTMENT FUNDS

In September 2024, there were 115 UCITS operating on the market. Total net assets of UCITS amounted to EUR 2.9bn at the end of the month, increasing by EUR 66.3m or 2.3% compared to the previous month. Total monthly payments of all UCITS in September were positive, amounting to EUR 55.6m. Positive net payments were recorded by all fund types, namely: money market funds (EUR 32.5m), bond funds (EUR 11.5m), equity funds (EUR 8.0m), balanced funds (EUR 1.6m), “other” funds (EUR 1.5m) and feeder funds (HRK 0.5m). Bond funds’ net assets accounted for 28.2% of all UCITS’ net assets at the end of September, while net assets of “other” funds, money market funds, equity funds and balanced funds made up 25.6%, 17.1%, 16.5% and 9.5% of total UCITS’ net assets respectively. In September 2024, positive asset-weighted average monthly returns were recorded by feeder funds (0.9%), balanced funds (0.8%), “other” funds (0.7%), bond funds (0.6%) and money market funds (0.2%), while a negative return was recorded by equity funds only (-0.1%). At the end of September 2024, the asset-weighted average annual returns stood at 23.9% for equity funds, 12.4% for feeder funds, 10.9% for balanced funds, 7.7% for funds categorised as “other" and 5.3% for bond funds.

Net assets of the Fund for Croatian Homeland War Veterans and Members of their Families amounted to EUR 180.1m (a 4.6% monthly increase), with the monthly return of the fund reaching 4.7%.

The full report is available at Statistics/Monthly reports.