BULGARIA - The Bulgarian government has agreed to implement changes proposed by the Financial Supervision Commission to enable different risk levels in the third pillar and raise the equity cap for second pillar funds.

A spokeswoman of the Financial Supervision Commission told IPE this morning the changes will be implemented from next year, seeing supplementary pension schemes offering three different risk profiles of the investment portfolio.

Pension funds in Bulgaria were worth an estimated BGN1.4bn (€716m) at the end of 2007.

The high-risk option invests up to 80% of assets in equities, while the equity cap for the balanced portfolio is 50% and for the conservative portfolio 15%.

The plans also suggest changes to the investment laws for compulsory pension schemes, proposing the cap on equity investments should be increased from the current 20% to 25%.

The law change would see the cap on corporate bond investments increase from 25% to 40%.

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