Pillar II also attracts employees not required to contribute

More than 1.7 million employees aged above 35, namely 39% of Pillar II participants, in late September contributed to mandatory private pension funds, with their number being 4% above the one registered in the same period of last year, according to the data provided by the Private Pension System Supervision Commission (CSSPP). Employees aged above 35 do not have the obligation by law to join a Pillar II fund. The problems of the public pension budget have made many employees who are not required to contribute to mandatory private pensions choose to join the system in order to boost the income they get after they retire. Mandatory private pension funds at the end of the third quarter had almost 4.46 million contributors and managed assets worth 1.99bn RON (around 4.76m euros). Compared with the same period of 2008, the value of Pillar II funds’ assets rose four times and the number of participants advanced by almost 18%. “The progression of private pensions in Romania in the third quarter was still in line with the trend registered since the start of the system: a constant upward trend, but with slower growth in the number of participants as a result of the decline in the number of employees and implicitly of the rise in unemployment,” say CSSPP representatives.