Austrian pension funds’ assets under management (AUM) increased by 2.38% quarter-on-quarter at the end of Q2 2023 to €25.43bn, according to the latest quarterly report published by the Financial Market Authority (FMA).

The largest share of assets totalling €23.25bn is managed by the country’s five multi-employer pension funds (überbetriebliche Pensionskassen), and the remaining share of €2.17bn by company pension funds (betriebliche Pensionskasse), according to the report.

The assets managed by the companies’ pension schemes amounted to around 5.44% of Austria’s GDP totalling €448bn at the end of 2022.

The Pensionkassen hold the largest investment allocations to equities (33.22%) and bonds (33.22%), with 6.91% in real estate, 2.68% in loans, 6.14% in bank accounts credit, and 12.12% in other assets.

Compared to the previous quarter, in Q2 Austrian pension funds increased allocations to bonds by 0.49%, to loans by 0.05%, and to equities by 1.68%, while cutting down investments in real estate by 0.10%, in bank accounts credit by 1.11%, and in other assets by 1.02%, the report added.

The schemes invest approximately 29.30% of total assets to foreign currency, after currency hedging transactions, with 96.12% of pension funds’ assets held via investment funds. Directly held assets include loans and held-to-maturity bonds.

The schemes returned 3.28% in the first six months of 2023, including 1.6% in the second quarter, compared with -9.98% recorded at the end of 2022. Over the last 10 years, they achieved an average annual performance of 3.32%, according to FMA.

The number of people entitled to pension benefits in Austria has grown by 0.15% to currently around 1.05 million, including 13.33% or 140,000 people that already receive a pension benefit in the form of company pension. The majority of those entitled are still in the savings phase.

According to IPE’s Top 1000 Pension Funds 2023, Austria’s pension fund assets stood at €38.7bn for 2023, compared with €40.6bn the eeyar before.

Read more

Austria: Pension industry faces an indifferent government

The latest digital edition of IPE’s magazine is now available

Luigi is IPE's Berlin-based DACH correspondent. His coverage includes regulation and the latest pensions and investments trends, and, being a native Italian, he also covers Italy’s pensions market. He has reported from Italy and Germany on international politics and business for European and US publications including USA Today, Bloomberg BNA and for the investigative magazine L’Espresso. He was previously Germany correspondent for Mergermarket covering M&A.View full Profile

More from Luigi Serenelli

Topics