ING, Allianz-Tiriac, Generali, Aviva and Interamerican have lured almost 2.2 million customers for the mandatory pension funds they manage, in the first two and a half months of operations. They were helped to gain a top position by investments, their brand name and the sales teams.
The 5 biggest pension firms (in terms of the number of contributors they have attracted so far) together have 2.15 million customers, who were persuaded to join by an army of 131,000 sales agents.
Practically, the market leaders' strength lay in the number of marketing agents and their aggressiveness, with the leaders in terms of the number of contributors almost matching the leaders in terms of sales teams. Together, ING, Allianz-Tiriac, Generali, Aviva and Interamerican hold almost 51% of the entire sales force on the market, without taking into account partnerships with external distribution channels (specialised brokers and the banks that use their network to sell private pensions).
ING, the current leader of the market, with 876,000 customers after 2 and a half months, is practically the only company that has so far hit the target it had set before the sales started. ING had targeted a 30% share of the market, namely 1 million customers, and now holds over 33% of the market. ING currently has almost 45,000 marketing agents, leading by far in this respect, too. ING's new target is 1.1-1.2 million customers, as the mandatory pension market should "stretch" to 3.5 million contributors.
Allianz-Tiriac, which has practically secured the 2nd position, is very close to reaching the targets it had announced before the start. The fund it manages has attracted 666,000 customers, namely 26% of the market, compared with the 30% initial target. From the 1 million targeted customers, it has now cut its sales target to 800,000 contributors. The company has a sales force of o
