Voluntary Funds' Contributions Increased Last Year

Last year, the membership fee income of voluntary pension funds amounted to HUF 120.116 billion, a 2.66% increase compared to the previous year, while the membership fee income of health funds increased by 19.73% to HUF 60.126 billion, Csaba Nagy, president of the National Association of Voluntary Funds (ÖPOSZ), told journalists in Budapest on Thursday.

He said that the number of members of pension funds in 2022 was 1,062,000, a minimal decrease of about 1% compared to the previous year, while the number of members of the whole pension fund increased to 982,000, an increase of 3.73%.

He added that a positive trend in the returns of voluntary pension funds is that after negative returns in the first three quarters, they achieved a positive return of 4.18% in the fourth quarter.

The President explained that the share of employer contributions in pension fund contributions is 32% and 14% for health funds.

He said that this ratio could be improved if employers made better use of these opportunities through their loyalty schemes and were given legal incentives to do so.

Gábor Kravalik, secretary general of the Fund Association, referring to the association's representative survey, said that over the past three years, pension and health savings have become more popular among the population, with both options moving up the list of savings goals.

The survey also showed that 90% of respondents said that a company's ability to offer both pension and health savings to its employees was a sign of a workplace's likeability, the secretary general said.

ÖPOSZ's membership represents 97% of Hungarian voluntary pension funds and 90% of health funds. The two sectors have around two million members.