Annual press release

The Kosovo Pension Savings Trust (Trust) announces two most prominent events at the end of the year: 1) the application procedure for 10%, and 2) the investment performance for 2020. Operational issues are also part of this notice.

Undoubtedly, the process of preparing the technological infrastructure for the application for the withdrawal of 10% was extremely challenging. This refers to the short time that needed to be prepared, to the very large flow of application requests, to the technological complexity of the application, security and accuracy of data, but also to the timely realization of payments.

Under the above conditions, we are confident that the institution has managed to successfully cope with a very large project, bearing all the professional responsibility of its design and implementation with internal human capacity with the latest technology of application, processing and storage.

We would like to emphasize here that the 10% withdrawal application procedure met other secondary objectives. The contributors directly understood the significance of the contributions, confirming that their contributions are managed in good faith by the Trust and that the financial value of their pension savings is fully in line with what the institution reports to them.

In terms of figures, until December 29, 2020, a 10% withdrawal was applied 394,978 account holders who received benefits in the financial value of about 184 million euros. Of this amount: about 138 million euros are contributions from users, while about 46 million euros are the profit made by investing funds. It should be noted that payments for applications of 10% from December 11 to December 24 have already been transferred to individual accounts of contributors and close to 387 thousand processed payments, we have less than 50 cases of cancellation of individual payments, which argues full operational success on this project.

More details on the application process and the 10% withdrawal will be published in the 2020 annual report.

At the end of this year, we are pleased to announce to contributors that the Trust is concluding another financial year with a positive return on investment. This result is more important than usual, because it was achieved during a very difficult period of the pandemic at the global level, but also because it has positively fruitful for more than 395 thousand contributors, who have so far submitted a 10% withdrawal request. Developed in financial terms, from December 29, 2020, the gross return on investment for 2020 reached about 72 million euros, with a unit price increase of about 3%. With a positive result this year, the gross return on investment since its inception has risen to over 550 million euros or with a 55% rise in share price.

Due to the withdrawal of 10% from the Trust, ie about 184 million euros so far, the assets under management were reduced from about 2.13 billion, as it was on December 11, to 1.98 billion euros, as it was on December 29. Final data will be available after the end of the calendar year.

This year, the Board of Directors decided that due to the pandemic and the state of emergency, as many other institutions did, all those who retire due to the age will receive protection from negative movements in the financial markets (at the unit price before the pandemic). This protection will remain in effect as long as the pandemic continues, in order to prevent all possible short-term effects on financial markets.

While in the field of business, the institution has recognized other great achievements. This year we have obviously served a record number of contributors: over 395 thousand who signed up for 10%, about 126 thousand new accounts opened in eTrust (or doubling of accounts compared to the end of 2019), over 120 thousand services provided in the KPST office and, as well as tens of thousands of services via messages, emails and phone calls received in 2020.

Therefore, aware of a completely unusual year, especially for the Trust, we deservedly appreciate the achievements of our institution, believing that we have moved to a new level of development, respect and public trust.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your cooperation in the implementation of the 10% withdrawal project: the Central Bank of Kosovo, officials of commercial banks, the Agency information society  and the Assembly of Kosovo for their continuous support!

We want and due to this we will do our best to make the next year positive and valuable for the contributors, given the important projects that are underway and which are expected to be completed next year.

At the end, we wish all contributors happy holidays at the end of the year and may 2021 be a happy year for all!

Table: Key data for the last two years

* These data are preliminary, because the final data are presented with the price from 31.12.2020 in the financial statements 2020, after they were confirmed by the external auditor.