Aviva Asigurari de Viata, already a licensed manager of optional private pensions, estimates it will sell the first pensions on May 15, says Corina Cucoli, bancassurance manager with the company.
"We hope to sell the first optional pensions starting May 15 using a field force of around 2,000 marketing agents," stated Corina Cucoli. The company has been recently licensed as a manager of optional private pensions (pillar III) and has received the authorisation for the issue prospectus for its first optional pensions fund.
As soon as it gets green light from the Private Pensions Commission (CSSPP) for the authorisation of the fund, Aviva will start selling optional pensions, first targeting the large companies already part of its portfolio.
Besides its first pensions fund, Aviva is also awaiting CSSPP's consent for its already existing field force: 1,200 full-time marketing agents and another 800 part-time ones. Aviva will manage a single pillar III fund at first, with a moderate risk profile. "We'll invest between 10% and 35% of the pension fund assets in listed shares, with investments to be exclusively operated on the Bucharest Stock Exchange in the first year," says Cucoli. The rest of the money in the fund will be invested in monetary market instruments (between 5% and 20% of assets), bonds (5%-30%) and other placements.
"I believe optional pensions are a corporate business, so we'll mainly sell these products to companies," she specified. Additionally, Aviva is currently seeking "the right legal solutions" to use its partnerships with three banks and a consumer lending firm to sell optional pensions through their banking networks. Aviva currently has bancassurance partnerships with BRD SocGen, BRD Finans (BRD's consumer finance company), ABN Amro and Credit Europe Bank. "As a matter of fact," Cucoli says, "a survey Aviva conducted last
