Austrian Pensionskassen have recorded a 5.25% reduction in assets under management in Q2 this year to a total of €24.61bn, compared with €25.97bn in Q1, according to the latest quarterly report published by supervisory authority FMA.

The assets are managed by eight occupational pensions providers, five multi-employer schemes, or überbetriebliche Pensionskassen, and three company pensions.

The five multi-employer schemes manage the largest part of the assets for the pension funds in Austria, €22.48bn, and the company pension schemes hold the remaining €2.11bn.

The assets managed by the company pension schemes amounted to around 6.69% of the Austrian GDP of € 403bn at the end of 2021.

The pension funds recorded returns of -8.78% in the first six months of 2022, and -5.2% in the second quarter. They achieved an average annual performance of 3.71% over the last 10 years, the FMA said.

Austrian Pensionskassen allocate the largest amount of assets to equities (36.95%), followed by bonds with 31.59%, financial institution credits with 9.14%, real estate at 6.90%, loans and credits with 1.71%, and other assets at 13.71%.

The pension schemes have reduced quarter-on-quarter allocations to fixed income, that in Q1 stood at 32.24%, and equities that in Q1 amounted to 39.02%, while increasing allocations to real estate that in Q1 totaled 6.34%, and loans and credits, 1.31% in Q1.

In the same period last year Austrian pension funds invested 39.44% of their assets in equities, 34.24% in bonds, 6.89% in financial institution credits, 5.28% in real estate, 0.80% in loans and credits and 13.29% in other assets.

Approximately 95.85% of the pension funds’ assets is managed indirectly via investment funds. Directly held assets include loans and credits, and held-to-maturity bonds, according to the FMA.

The Pensionskassen have currently around 1.03 million members, including 12.81% already receiving pension benefits. This corresponds to an increase in the number of members of 0.32% quarter-on-quarter in Q2, and 132,000 people already receive company pensions.

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