Serbia's Pension Funds Post First Loss in Three Years
The National Bank of Serbia's quarterly report shows net assets of the seven voluntary pension funds falling to 66.4 billion dinars, as the contribution fee rises to 2.5 percent.
The net assets of the seven voluntary pension funds operating in Serbia stood at 66.4 billion dinars at the end of March 2026. According to a quarterly report from the National Bank of Serbia, published on July 30, 2026, that is 0.4 percent less than at the end of the previous quarter, the first quarterly decline after three years of growth.
The decline is small in size, but it breaks a run that had lasted since 2023. In the first three months of the year, the funds collected 1.3 billion dinars in contributions, while paying out 940 million dinars to members who met the required conditions. The ratio was more favorable in the fourth quarter of 2025, when inflows of 1.39 billion dinars were matched against outflows of 919 million.
Why Are Assets Falling When Contributions Exceed Payouts?
Because contributions and payouts are not the only items in the equation. A fund’s net assets are also shaped by costs charged directly against the assets and by the performance of the investment portfolio, so a gap of around 360 million dinars between inflows and outflows is not automatically enough to cover everything else. A drop in net assets does not necessarily mean weaker inflows, it can just as easily point to bigger outflows on some other basis.
The fee charged when contributions are paid in was raised from an average of 2.2 to 2.5 percent. On that basis, the management companies collected 33 million dinars in the first quarter, about 14 percent of all fees charged. The management fee is more lucrative: charged at a rate of up to 1.25 percent a year on a fund’s net asset value, it brought in 204 million dinars.
The Payment Fee Has Risen for a Third Straight Quarter
The rise to 2.5 percent is not an isolated move. The average payment fee stood at 2.18 percent in the third quarter of 2025, climbed to 2.21 percent in the fourth, then jumped to 2.5 percent in the first quarter of 2026. On a monthly contribution of 5,000 dinars, that is a difference of about 16 dinars that no longer reaches the member’s account, staying instead with the management company.
Returns over the same period are moving the other way. The twelve month return stands at 4.3 percent, down from 4.8 percent at the end of the third quarter of 2025 and 4.5 percent at the end of that year. The five year return is 3.8 percent, while the return since the funds began operating is 7.1 percent.
Two Thirds of the Money Sits in Government Bonds
The investment structure did not shift significantly in the first quarter and remained tied to government debt:
- government bonds, 66.4 percent of assets
- shares of domestic companies, 10.8 percent
- term deposits with banks, 10 percent
- investments abroad, 6.1 percent
- funds in custody accounts, 4.5 percent
Portfolio managers extended maturities. The average maturity of funds invested in government bonds now stands at 7.8 years, up from 6.9 years at the end of 2025, as the share of long-dated securities increased. About two thirds of those bonds are denominated in dinars, the rest in euros.
Who Saves in Voluntary Pension Funds
The funds had 229,780 members at the end of March, 456 more than at the end of 2025. The number of signed contracts fell by 16 over the same period, to 318,928, since one in five members belongs to two or more funds. The average member is around 48 years old, and nearly two thirds of members are between 40 and 60.
The average accumulated balance is around 320,000 dinars, lower than the roughly 322,000 recorded at the end of 2025. Members of these funds make up 10 percent of all employed people in Serbia. Of the 1.3 billion dinars paid in during the first quarter, 41.7 percent came from individual contributions, 35.2 percent from employers paying for their staff, and 23.1 percent went through pension plans.
The market remains narrow. The seven funds are run by four management companies, alongside two custodian banks, five intermediary banks and one insurance company acting as intermediary. The largest fund holds 41.6 percent of the market, and the three largest together hold 80.5 percent, so a price change at just one of them shifts the average for the whole market. The National Bank of Serbia will publish its next snapshot in the second quarter report.
