ArmInfo. Since the launch of the defined contribution pension system in Armenia, the share of its assets in the Armenian GDP made up 0.7%, or 35.5 bln AMD by 29 Feb 2016. 16.5 bln AMD of the specified amount is the contributions of the system participants, with 16.5 bln AMD being the state co-funding and 2.5 bln AMD being the revenues of the Pension Fund, Karen Hakobyan, Head of the Securities Market Management Department of the Central Bank of Armenia, said at today's press conference organized at the initiative of the Economic Journalists Club and Konrad- Adenauer-Stiftung. Hakobyan noted that the annual yield of the pension assets in the defined pension system made up 7%.
He said that 66% of the assets are in the national currency, 25% - in US dollars and 9% - in euros. Hakobyan also stressed that 28% of the assets are banking investments, 38% - government bonds, 28% - shares, and 6% - corporate bonds.
When speaking of the participants of the defined pension system, he pointed out that by late Feb 2016 the number of active payers was 140 thsd - about 50% of the total active population of Armenia (born after 1 January 1974). Nearly 70 thsd active players are employees at state-run companies, with the remaining part being employed in the private sector. Hakobyan added that nearly 3-4 thsd citizens join the system monthly.
The pension fund managers are two large European companies - Amundi-ACBA-Asset-Management CJSC and "C-QUADRAT Ampega Asset Management Armenia". By the data provided by the pension fund managers, by late Feb 2016, the assets of Amundi-ACBA-Asset-Management amounted to almost 18 bln AMD, and those of C-QUADRAT totaled 17.3 bln AMD.
To recall, the compulsory defined pension system was introduced in Armenia on 1 Jan 2014. The compulsory contributions (5% of wages but no more than 25,000 AMD) are automatically made by the citizens born after 1 Jan 1974. The state's co-funding is also 5%. The pension account operators are HayPost, ARARATBANK, Ardshinbank, HSBC Bank Armenia, Armbusinessbank, VTB Bank (Armenia), Converse Bank and INECOBANK.