Pension scheme recovery continues as total assets top €128bn

The Republic’s pension funds continued to bounce back from last year’s dip with the value of assets held by the sector increasing by €2 billion in the three months to the end of June, according to new figures from the Central Bank.

Pension schemes held assets valued at €128 billion at the end of the second quarter, an increase of 1.7 per cent from the first three months of the year.

The sector continued to recover from the decline in values that saw total Irish pension assets fall to €117 billion in the second half of 2022, albeit at a slower pace than the first three months of 2023 when a 9 per cent jump was recorded.

It meant pension fund assets are now effectively back at the levels they were at the end of 2020. But the Central Bank said the value of pension assets is still down on the €138 billion high recorded at the end of 2021.

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Pension fund reserves, meanwhile, increased 5.6 per cent over the three-month period to the end of June while technical reserves – the amount funds hold in order to meet the future claims of its members – for defined-contribution schemes increased 6.8 per cent, the Central Bank said.

But technical reserves for defined-benefit schemes increased “only slightly” in the quarter.

Globally, pension schemes were impacted by the sharp rise in interest rates last year, which weighed on equities markets, driving valuations lower.