Banca Transilvania and VIG in race for BRD-SocGen’s pension funds

Banca Transilvania (BT) and Vienna Insurance Group (VIG) are competing to buy BRD Pensii – the pension fund management arm of BRD-SocGen financial group in Romania, Ziarul Financiar announced.

BRD Pensii is the smallest of the pension funds on the Romanian market, with modest performances, while none of the bidders is active in the Pillar II scheme so as to achieve economies of scale – much needed by the funds managed by BRD.

Both financial groups, BT and VIG, are bidding through their pension management arms, BT Pensii and Carpathia Pensii (formerly known as Aegon), respectively, managing voluntary private (Pillar III) pension funds.

BRD Pensii operates both in the Pillar II scheme, where its fund is the smallest in terms of contributors and assets, and the Pillar III scheme.

Both of BRD Pensii’s funds, mandatory and voluntary, posted the weakest performances as of the end of 2023. Altogether, the two funds sum up to almost 600,000 contributors – 6.8% of the total number of contributors to the seven Pillar II and ten Pillar III funds. Their combined assets are RON 5.67 billion (EUR 1.14 billion) – 4.3% of the total combined assets of Pillar II and III funds.

BRD decided in the middle of last year to sell BRD Pensii, especially since the company was at the centre of a fraud scandal of RON 23 million in the summer of 2022. Failure to reach a critical mass in terms of contributors is another reason.

The disappointing performances posted by BRD Pensii’s funds are pushing contributors towards other fund managers on the market.

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