Pension funds are waiting for a market rebound to diversify investments

Mandatory private pension funds (2nd pillar) keep almost 70% of the money collected from clients in highly secure financial instruments, such as government securities and bank deposits, and are expecting the revival of the market to invest more in shares. At the end of February, over 58% of the money managed by pension funds - more than 1.1 billion RON, was placed in T-Bills, 25.3% in corporate bonds, and around 11.5% in bank deposits, show data from the Private Pensions Supervisory Commission. The funds invested around 3% of the money in municipal bonds and kept away from shares and mutual funds, with investments in such instruments amounting to 1.2% and around 0.7% respectively. "For now, this very prudent strategy has proven very good, because it has brought very good yields in a very troubled time for financial markets. In other countries, pension funds lost a lot, but in Romania not only were they able to keep from making losses, but they actually logged a profit - pension managers here deserve two thumbs up," says Dorin Boboc, investment manager of Allianz-Tiriac Pensii Private, the second largest player on the market of mandatory pensions, which manages an over one million-client fund.