Statistics

Authorized pension providers publish information on the results of their investment activities four times a year. Once we have gathered the data of all the operators, we draw up a summary of the amount of earnings-related pension assets, their returns and the breakdown of investments, and publish the data on our website. We update the data in March, May, September and November.

In addition to our quarterly information, we maintain statistics showing the development of earnings-related pension assets since 1997.

We update the “basic figure series” on the most important data describing the development of pension assets quarterly, based on the quarterly information on authorized pension providers’ investment activities. We also update each quarter the statistical figure regarding authorized pension providers’ investment lending and new investment and TyEL premium lending.

Every March, we update the figure series pertaining to development of pension assets by subject area, which describe distribution by pension institution group, region, and investment type.

Every March, we update the time series graphs describing the ratio of earnings-related pension assets to GDP and the distribution of pension insurance companies’ investments since 1980.

We have compiled time series graphs on Finnish authorized pension providers’ holdings on the stock exchange from 2004 onwards. They describe the listed shares owned by the entire earnings-related pension sector and by pension insurance companies as well as their share of the market value of the Helsinki Stock Exchange. We update time series graphs pertaining to stock market assets every March.

The funding and investment of earnings-related pension assets generate investment returns for the pension system, which are used to finance earnings-related pensions now being paid. We publish summaries of pension providers’ average annual returns for different time periods on our website. We update our data twice a year regarding the January–June semi-annual return (update in August) and the entire annual return for the calendar year (update in March).

We publish time series graphs describing earnings-related pension investments’ returns over the long term, broken down into private-sector and public-sector pension providers. We update the graphs every March.

For pension insurance companies, it is possible to present group-specific descriptions of the long-term average returns on investments by applying a more precise breakdown of investment categories. We publish the companies’ nominal average returns at the overall level and by main investment category (fixed-income investments, equity investments, real estate investments and other investments) every March.

The six largest earnings-related pension investors (the four pension insurance companies, Keva, and the State Pension Fund) publish their interim reports four times a year, always providing information on the breakdown of investments and on returns for each quarter. Based on these interim reports, we update the enclosed quarterly information for each pension provider (known as the risk-return tables).

We begin updating the tables when the first two pension investors have published their information. We publish subsequent updates as the returns data are published. The updates generally occur in February–March, April, August and October.

In the private sector, the technical provisions of pension providers include an item of its own: an equity-linked buffer (OLV), which enables pension providers jointly to bear part of the risk arising from fluctuations in returns on equities. On the basis of the realised returns on equities, this component of the technical provisions is either increased or decreased by the so-called equity coefficient, which is determined by the Finnish Centre for Pensions. The equity coefficient takes into account the weighting coefficients and point figures, which we update on our website.

We make quarterly updates in February, May, August and November.

Every year, in cooperation with the Finnish Centre for Pensions, we publish a summary of the pension providers’ financial statements. The information appears as a supplement to the Centre’s Työeläkelehti periodical, which is published every year in early June (in Finnish and Swedish). We also publish the key figures from the supplement in English on our website.

On the basis of pension providers’ financial statements, we make an annual compilation of the pension providers’ market share data both on the yearly basis and as a time series graph. The compilation describes the breakdown of premium income and pension expenditure for each type of pension provider and presents the pension insurance companies’ shares of premium income and the people insured under the Employees Pensions Act (TyEL) and the Self-Employed Persons’ Pensions Act (YEL).

We update the market share information in June following the publication of financial statements.

On the basis of the pension providers’ financial statements, we produce a summary of the providers’ IT system costs. We publish a new summary every June, and the related press release is available on our website (only in Finnish).

Pension insurance companies compete against each other to win the business of enterprises in the private sector. Employer enterprises and self-employed persons can take out earnings-related pension insurance from the pension insurance company of their choice. They can also transfer their earnings-related pension insurance from one company to another if they wish. Competition between pension insurance companies and the transfer of policies from one company to another can be illustrated by what we call transfer statistics.

On the basis of the data we receive from the pension insurance companies, we compile transfer statistics four times a year in January, April, July and October.

Most of the pension contributions collected yearly are used to pay the pensions of current pensioners. Contributions collected in some private sectors, however, are put into funds and invested to pay for pensions in future years. Accordingly, some of the earnings-related pensions paid annually are covered by assets and their returns paid into funds previously.

We update illustrative figures related to the circulation of pension money annually on the basis of financial statements. We publish preliminary circulation figures in March and the final ones in June.

Some of the portions of pensions placed in funds for private-sector employees constitute the pension providers’ technical provisions for future pensioners. We keep statistics on the development of technical provisions and update the relevant figures once a year in October–November.

The solvency regulations which bind private-sector pension providers set conditions for the investment of earnings-related pension assets. An earnings-related pension provider should have enough solvency capital to allow it to meet its pension obligations even when some of its underwriting risks materialize. In addition to solvency capital, key figures in solvency regulation are solvency position and solvency ratio.

The Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority publishes data on private-sector pension providers’ solvency quarterly. On the basis of these data, we update our own statistical figures, including on the solvency of earnings-related pension providers’, industry-wide pension funds’ and company pension funds’ solvency. These updates generally occur in March, May–June, September and November.

In addition, we compile time series graphs pertaining to the pension providers’ solvency development based on financial statements. We update these graphs every June.