The private occupational pensions are still in the drafting stage, but the action behind the scenes shows the future players are intently focused and already marking their turf.
The unions - even though having challenged the Labour Ministry's draft, are negotiating the takeover of certain insurance companies to allow them to play an active role in the administration of the pension funds. Furthermore, new players, that is the financial investment companies (SIF), have come along, pursuing the same strategy: takeover of small insurance companies, to be ready when the time comes.
The National Union Block (BNS) is negotiating the acquisition of a stake in Croma insurance company, the oil sector employees' union is interested in buying into PetroAs and Provitas through Romexterra, while Cartel Alfa wants to team up with the patronages and invest $2 million in the takeover of an insurance company. Furthermore, Cartel Alfa is negotiating a possible co-operation with the major insurers on the market.
So what kind of a pension system is this? The occupational pension schemes will be an alternate, but optional pension system, besides the public one. The pensions are called "occupational" because they are tightly related to the activity of the future pensioners. Therefore, the steelworkers' guild or the doctors' college, for instance, contributes to certain funds managed either by companies established by patronages and/or unions, or by companies with which a contract was concluded first. The funds would increase under the management of a pension company or an insurer, with the occupational pension coming as an addition to the public one in about 30 or 40 years. There is a huge stake on this market, because if only half of the total 4.7 million employees contributed 4-5% of their gross average salary to this private system, the amounts collected by these funds would reach $200-$300 million a year (considering the average gross salary in Romania, which reaches about $2,000 a year).
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