Pension funds

The data refer to the assets and liabilities of pension funds (PFBR and the discontinued datasets ICPF and PFB) and its members (PFBM). Pension funds (PFs) resident in the territory of a euro area Member State form the reference reporting population.

PFBR - This dataset presents harmonised statistics on the assets and liabilities of pension funds (PFs) resident in the euro area. These statistics are available as from the first quarter of 2020.

These statistics refer to the assets and liabilities of euro area pension funds (PFs) and the data currently cover end-of-quarter outstanding amounts and selected financial transactions.

This dataset presents statistics collected under the Regulation ECB/2018/2 on pension funds (PFs) on the assets and liabilities of pension funds (PFs) which belong to the sector “pension funds (PFs)” in the European System of Accounts (ESA 2010). These statistics replace the non-harmonised euro area pension funds statistics that have been published by the ECB in the context of euro area insurance corporations and pension funds (ICPF). The pension funds statistics differ from the discontinued statistics in terms of completeness and level of detail - a direct comparison of the new and old statistics is therefore not always possible.

PFBM - This dataset presents harmonised statistics on the members of pension funds (PFs) resident in the euro area. These statistics are available as of 2019. The data are reported annually.

This dataset presents statistics collected under the Regulation ECB/2018/2 on pension funds (PFs) which belong to the sector “pension funds (PFs)” in the European System of Accounts (ESA 2010) and data are available by type of members (active, deferred, retired and total). 

An active member is a pension scheme member who is making contributions (and/or on behalf of whom contributions are being made) and is accumulating assets or has accrued assets in the past and is not yet retired. A deferred member is a pension scheme member who no longer contributes to or accrues benefits from the scheme but has not yet begun to receive retirement benefits from that scheme. A retired member is a pension scheme member who no longer contributes to or accrues benefits from the scheme and has begun to receive retirement benefits from that scheme.

Members can have accrued multiple pension rights with multiple pension funds. For example, an individual can be registered as active member in one pension fund, as a deferred member in another and receiving pension benefits from another pension fund. In that case, they will also be counted multiple times in the data.

ICPF (discontinued) - This dataset presents statistics on the assets and liabilities of euro area insurance corporations and pension funds (ICPFs) (as defined in ESA 95). National Central Banks (NCBs) provide data on a "best effort" basis, as they are not legally obliged to report by any Regulation (short-term approach). These statistics are available as from the first quarter of 2008 until the second quarter of 2016.

PFB (discontinued) - This dataset presents statistics on the assets and liabilities of euro area pension funds as defined in the European System of Accounts (ESA 2010). National Central Banks (NCBs) provide data on a "best effort" basis, as they are not legally obliged to report by any Regulation (short-term approach). These statistics are available as from the first quarter of 2016 until the fourth quarter of 2019.