Report of the Hungarian National Bank on Private Pension Funds First half of 2023

Number of supervised institutions (voluntary pension funds, private pension funds, and health and self-help fund groups) decreased from 50 to 48 at the end of 2023, due to the merger of one voluntary pension fund and the liquidation of another.
Assets managed by voluntary pension funds increased by 21.3% compared to the same period of the previous year, while assets managed by private pension funds increased by 20.9%. Assets managed by the health and self-help fund group exceeded the value of a year earlier by 15.7%.
The slow decline in the number of members of voluntary and private pension funds continued in 2023. Compared to the end of the previous year, the number of voluntary pension fund members decreased by 1.7%, and the number of private pension fund members decreased by 1.9%. In contrast, the number of health fund, self-help fund, and health and self-help fund members showed an annual increase of 5.2%.
Despite the decreasing number of members, the identified individual account voluntary pension fund contribution income for the first four quarters of 2023 amounted to HUF 125.9 billion, which is 7.2% higher than the value of the same period of the previous year, as a result of the combined increase in member contributions and employer contributions.
There was no significant change in the composition of contribution income in 2023, as the vast majority (66.7%, with a decrease of 1.7 percentage points) is still made up of contributions paid by members.
The amount of personal income tax refunds related to fund contributions was HUF 18.1 billion, which indicates a 14.6% increase compared to the previous year.
There was a 9.4% annual increase in the amount of payments affecting the voluntary pension fund reserve, reaching HUF 139.1 billion in 2023.
In 2023, the largest share of payments, 58.8%, is still made up of service expenses.
The second largest share of payments is made up of payments made after the waiting period but still within the accumulation period.
At the end of 2023, the assets of voluntary pension funds amounted to HUF 1,960.2 billion, which corresponds to a 21.3% increase compared to the end of the previous year.
In 2023, the result of the sector’s investment activity was a profit of HUF 339.3 billion, compared to a loss of HUF 117.4 billion in the previous year.
Both the number of voluntary pension fund members and the amount of member claims show that, similar to previous years, the group of members between the ages of 45 and 59 made up the largest share in 2022.

The assets managed by private pension funds amounted to HUF 306.7 billion at the end of 2023, which corresponds to a 20.9% increase compared to the same period of the previous year.

There was no rearrangement in the composition of the private pension fund investment portfolio in 2023 compared to the previous year, but it can be noted that, compared to voluntary pension funds, the direct exposure to Hungarian government bonds increased by 4.6 percentage points in the private pension fund sector, reaching 52.6%.
In 2023, the result of the investment activity of private pension funds was a profit of HUF 58.5 billion, compared to a loss of HUF 20.9 billion in the previous year.