Asset under management at Austrian Pensionskassen increased by 2.83% quarter-on-quarter at the end of Q2 this year to reach €26.23bn, according to a report by the Financial Market Authority (FMA).

Eight providers, including five multi-employer schemes, or überbetriebliche Pensionskassen, and three company pensions manage the overall assets.

Multi-employer pension schemes manage the largest part of the assets with €23.97bn, up 2.90% in Q2 from €23.30bn in Q1. The remaining €2.25bn recorded in the second quarter of this year, an increase of 2.13% from €2.25bn in Q1, is under the management of company pension funds.

The assets managed by all company pension schemes amounted to around 6.65% of Austria’s GDP, which at the end of 2020 stood at €376bn.

Returns on investment, contributions, pension benefits, and inflows generated by new pension fund contracts drove up AUM in Q2, the supervisory body said.

Austrian pension funds have recorded a performance on investments of 4.8% in the first six months of this year, and of 2.8% in the second quarter, up from 2.49% achieved in 2020.

The largest share of the assets held by Austrian pension funds is invested in equities (39.44%), up by 0.85% quarter-on-quarter from 38.59% in Q1, followed by bonds with 34.24%, financial institution credits with 6.89%, real estate 5.28%, loans and credits with 0.80% and other assets at 13.29%.

Pension funds hold assets mostly indirectly – 97.24% – through investment funds. Assets held directly include loans and credits, bonds and financial institution credits.

Around 30.12% of the assets are invested in foreign currencies after currency hedging transactions.

The report shows that the number of Pensionskassen has instead decreased during the years, from 12 in 2016, to 10 in 2017 and eight today.

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