Pension Fund Statistics

Balance sheet (assets and liabilities) data for pension funds resident in Ireland (ESA 2010 sector S129) consists of financial corporations that principally engage in financial intermediation as a consequence of pooling social risks and providing for income in retirement. In Ireland, a pension fund is an autonomous occupational pension scheme established under trust.

Key Points - Q2 2024

Publication Date: 13 September 2024

• Total assets of the Irish pension fund (PF) sector increased by 1.4 per cent in Q2 2024 to stand at €138 billion (Chart 1). This was driven by a continued upward trend in insurance technical reserves (ITRs)¹, which grew by 3.8 per cent (€2.8 billion) over the quarter.
• Technical reserves relating to pension entitlements decreased by 1.5 per cent in Q2 2024 (Chart 2). A growth in defined contribution (DC) of 3 per cent was offset by a 6.4 per cent decline in defined benefit (DB) technical reserves². Despite this, net worth grew by 56 per cent (€4.1 billion).
• Pension funds with a total asset value greater than €1 billion account for the majority of pension fund assets (52 per cent). The composition of the defined benefit (DB) sector has remained relatively unchanged across quarters, whereas the composition of defined contribution (DC) sector has seen consolidation into larger pension funds in recent years. This has resulted in the percentage of DC pension fund assets valued at more than €1 billion increasing from 11 per cent in Q2 2022 to 45 per cent in Q2 2024.

Summary Charts

Chart 1: Assets of Irish pension funds

Chart 2: Liabilities of Irish pension funds

Chart 3: Irish pension funds share of total assets, by pension fund size

Notes

[1] In the pension funds context insurance technical reserves (ITRs) are assets relating to claims on insurance corporations by pension funds (also known as pension fund reserves) while pension entitlement technical reserves are liabilities relating to claims on pension funds by households.

[2] Defined benefit technical reserves includes hybrid schemes. Technical reserves are valued on an accounting standard basis. Defined benefit technical reserves and net worth are reported on an annual basis (at year end), values for other quarters are estimated and subject to revision on receipt of latest annual data.

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