Aviva signed up the first Romanian for the mandatory private pensions system as part of an unprecedented press event, at which Mihaela R?dulescu was also present in her capacity as ambassador for the Aviva brand.
Aviva signed up the first Romanian for the mandatory private pensions system as part of an unprecedented press event, at which Mihaela Rădulescu was also present in her capacity as ambassador for the Aviva brand.
Aviva is the European leader for life insurance and long-term savings products and one of the first companies on the Romanian market to have received authorisation to administer a voluntary pension fund, on 17 May 2007, as well as authorisation to administer its mandatory pension fund - Pensia Viva, on 21 August 2007. Aviva is the company which has signed off the first application form in the mandatory private pensions campaign, Pillar II, launched today.
The Pensia Viva pension fund, administered by Aviva, was launched at an unprecedented press conference at midnight. The fees charged for administration and management of the investment are amongst the lowest in the private pensions sector. Aviva charges a commission of 2.5% from each contribution, before converting these into units in the fund.
In 2008, Aviva will not charge any administration fee for participants' funds. From 2009, the monthly charge for administration levied on the participants' assets will be 0.05% per month. These are amongst the lowest fees for administration of funds in the world.
Administration of the investments for the Pensia Viva pension fund will be co-ordinated by Eugen Voicu, Aviva's director of investments and CEO of Certinvest. Aviva announced last week that it has bought Certinvest, the oldest and most experienced asset administration company in Romania. The experience of Eugen Voicu and that of the Certinvest team will be an essential component of Aviva's strategy and will offer to Pensia Viva customers exceptional returns on their money.
"Aviva is one of the largest foreign investors operating in the Romanian financial services market, and is proposing to invest up to €100 million in its newly established pensions company. We have over 28,000 well-trained marketing agents, authorised by the CSSPP and one of the best investment teams in the country," stated Shah Rouf, CEO Aviva Romania.
In the course of the pensions launch party, Aviva introduced its new ambassador, Mihaela Rădulescu.
"Before choosing an ambassador for Aviva, an opinion poll was carried out amongst 18-45 year-olds, and they voted for Mihaela as the star who inspires the greatest degree of credibility, with a forward-looking approach and a winning spirit, all attributes associated with Aviva's values." said Andi McLennan, director of marketing & propositions Aviva Romania.
The surprise news of the evening was hearing that Mihaela Rădulescu's mother has also been involved in Aviva's campaign to promote mandatory private pensions. Aviva's new advertising campaign was launched today at 00.01am with a TV advert starting off with Mihaela's mother telling everyone about pensions and the only pensions provider with over 300 years' experience - Aviva. Just as she goes on to state that there's no point talking about pensions when you're already advanced in years and that people should take action when they're young, her image changes into that of Mihaela. The advert finishes with Mihaela talking about Aviva's new pension product - Pensia Viva and about the three promises that Aviva makes to its customers: value, growth and security.
Aviva has over 40 million clients worldwide and over 400,000 in Romania. The company's short-term objectives are to increase its new customer base by 500,000 to reach a million and to become market leader in the next six months, in both the mandatory and voluntary pensions sectors.
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For further information:
Giliola Ignat - Marketing Manager - Advertising & PR
Telephone: 0723 310 378
E-mail: giliola.ignat@aviva.ro
Note for editors
About the Aviva group
Aviva is the oldest insurance group in the world and the largest in Great Britain, dating back to 1696. Today, Aviva has 59,000 employees and 40 million customers in 27 countries across the world. Aviva is the market leader for life insurance in Europe. Aviva has revenue from insurance premiums and investments totalling €61 billion and administers over €535 billion worth of funds.
The Aviva group in Romania
The Aviva group in Romania includes three companies:
- Aviva Life Insurance
- Aviva Administration Company for a Private Pensions Fund
- Certinvest (bought on 13 September 2007)
About Aviva Life Insurance and Aviva Administration Company for a Private Pensions Fund
Aviva began operating as a provider of life insurance in Romania in 2000 (Aviva Life Insurance SA) and currently insures over 430,000 Romanians.
On 26 July 2007, Aviva received approval from the Oversight Committee for the System of Private Pensions to set up a company to administer private pensions (Aviva Administration Company for a Private Pensions Fund SA), and on 25 August it received authorisation to administer its mandatory pensions fund - Pensia Viva.
About Certinvest
Certinvest currently administers €24 million in four mutual funds, each of them based around a different type of investment: Intercapital - a shares fund, Capital Plus - a balanced fund, Orizont - a fixed-income (bonds) fund and Tezaur, a capital market fund. Certinvest also administers individual investment accounts for high-earning customers.
Certinvest has shown throughout the years that it is one of the most dynamic and innovative administrators in the market. The company launched the first commission-free sales fund on the Romanian market (Tezaur) and the first bonds fund in Romania (Orizont). Certinvest is also proud to support the bull market for investment funds in Romania.
About Pensia Viva
The investment policy of the Pensia Viva Product fund, administered by Aviva consists of a mixture of prudent and balanced investments.
By means of the investment policy, the Pensia Viva privately administered pension fund sets the following limits on the structure of assets, depending on availability on the market of the assets in question, whilst not exceeding the maximum levels set in law:
| Type of financial product | Minimum allowed in the fund | Balance Structure | Maximum allowed in the fund |
| - bonds and other transferable securities of foreign non-governmental organisations, if these products are listed on authorised stock exchanges and meet rating requirements¹ | 0% | 4% | 5% |
| - state deeds issued by the Romanian Public Finance Ministry, issued by EU member states or those belonging to the European Economic Area | 45% | 55% | 70% |
| - state deeds and other transferable securities issued by third-party states² | 0% | 11% | 15% |
| Type of financial product | Minimum allowed in the fund | Balance structure | Maximum allowed in the fund |
| - transferable securities traded on regulated and supervised markets in EU member states, including Romania, or those belonging to the European Economic Area; | 10% | 30% | 35% |
| - products on money markets including accounts and deposits in lei at a bank, with a Romanian legal representative, or at a branch of a foreign credit institution authorised to operate on Romanian territory; | 0% | 10%³ | |
| - bonds and other transferable securities, issued by local public administration authorities in Romania or EU member states or those belonging to the European Economic Area | 0% | 10% | |
| - bonds and other transferable securities, traded on regulated and supervised markets, issued by local public administration authorities in third-party states | 0% | 10% | |
| - deeds of participation issued by collective placement organisations in transferable securities in Romania or in other countries | 0% | 5% |