OREANDA-NEWS. July 17, 2012. According to the estimates of SEB, in the present decade, complicated times will continue on the financial markets and investment risks are higher than usual. The SEB strategy for pension funds prescribes the avoidance of high fluctuations in values and the achievement of a more stable yield throughout the years, reported the press-centre of SEB.

If in 2011, positive yields were only shown by pension funds with a conservative strategy, then in the first half of the present year, the yields on all SEB pension funds have been positive.

“Those accumulating pensions in the second pillar are amassing ever larger amounts of money, and with that clients’ desire to risk real money is diminishing. It is our goal to offer our clients a somewhat more peaceful ride on the current curvy mountain road of the financial markets, to avoid too high a risk of driving out of the next curve due to excessive speed,” Sven Kunsing, Member of the Management Board of SEB Varahaldus said.

The yields of the second pillar funds of SEB remained between 1.87 and 2.95 per cent in the first six months of the present year. “In the conditions of the financial crisis and decelerating global economic growth, we have continued with a very careful strategy,” said Kunsing. “This defensive position served our clients rather well on the falling markets of 2011. We believe that the situation in the global economy in the past six months has not at all become more positive, rather, vice versa, which is why there is still relatively little equity risk in our portfolios. In the first half-year, inflation in Estonia amounted to about 2.4 per cent and three out of four of our funds exceeded this index. If we take into account the relatively low risks taken by the SEB funds, the result can be considered satisfactory.

According to Statistics Estonia, consumer prices have increased by almost 10.4 per cent since the end of 2008. The yields of three SEB funds that were active in that period – Conservative, Optimal and Progressive Pension Funds – were in that period 17.8, 25.8 and 21.7 per cent, respectively. Although it has definitely been possible to achieve much better results in several markets, these would be better at the expense of much greater risk-taking.”

Despite the fact that retirement may yet be a long way off for a person, most customers do not wish to see their pension assets shrink dramatically when markets plummet. The SEB pension funds investment strategy is aimed at providing clients with expected investment results.