March 2026 Monthly Report

PENSION FUNDS

SECOND PILLAR PENSION FUNDS

At the end of March 2026, mandatory pension funds (MPFs) had 2,407,600 members, i.e. 1,866 (0.08%) members more than in the previous month. Category B funds had 74.16% of all MPF members, while category A and category C funds had 22.54% and 3.30% of all MPF members respectively. Out of 3,124 new members, 2,795 (89.5%) were automatically allocated by Regos. Termination of membership due to retirement or death was recorded with respect to 1,259 insured persons. Total net contributions paid to MPFs amounted to EUR 156.2m (0.6% of net assets at end-February). At the same time, total payments from all MPFs due to personal account closures reached EUR 26.8m (0.1% of net assets at end-February), falling by EUR 2.8m (9.42%) compared to the previous month.

At the end of March 2026, MPFs’ net assets amounted to EUR 27.0bn, declining by EUR 604.4m (2.2%) relative to the previous month, due to negative market developments caused by the Middle East crisis. Nominal monthly Mirex returns reached -3.67% for category A^[1], -2.76% for category B and -0.84% for category C. Annual Mirex returns reached 16.38% for category A, 8.32% for category B and 1.56% for category C, while annualised^[2] returns since the beginning of MPFs’ operation reached 8.46% for Mirex A, 5.51% for Mirex B and 3.16% for Mirex C^[3].

At the end of March, bond investments of MPFs totalled EUR 15.6bn (57.9% of total assets), making their share increase by 1.4 p.p. on a monthly basis. The share of equity investments in MPFs’ assets decreased by 0.7 p.p. on a monthly basis, primarily due to market developments, thus amounting to 24.6% of MPFs’ assets (EUR 6.6bn) at the end of March. Investments in domestic shares accounted for 13.7%, while investments in foreign shares accounted for 10.9% of MPFs’ assets. Investments in investment funds amounted to EUR 3.0bn (11.0% of the assets), making the proportion of these investments in total assets decrease by 0.2 p.p. relative to the previous month. Cash and deposits amounted to 4.0% of the assets, or EUR 1.1bn, decreasing by 0.7 p.p. on a monthly basis.

THIRD PILLAR PENSION FUNDS

At the end of March 2026, the number of members of 8 open-ended voluntary pension funds (OVPFs) rose by 0.66% on a monthly basis, while the number of members of 21 closed-ended voluntary pension funds (CVPFs) increased by 0.62%, making the number of members of these funds reach 452,720 and 51,581 respectively. Total monthly payments made to voluntary pension funds (VPFs) in March 2026 amounted to EUR 13.7m (0.8% of net assets at end-February), decreasing by 3.2% compared to the previous month. Total payments made from these funds reached EUR 7.3m, decreasing by 9.6% on a monthly basis. Total payments from VPFs made due to retirement and other reasons accounted for 68.4%, payments made due to the change of fund reached 27.4%, while those made due to death accounted for 4.2% of total payments in March. As regards total payments made due to retirement, the amount of EUR 2.0m (40%) was paid through a pension company (fund), EUR 1.6m (32%) was paid in the form of lump-sum payments, while the amount of EUR 1.4m (28%) was transferred for payment to pension insurance companies.

In March, VPFs’ net assets decreased by EUR 43.0m (2.5% on a monthly basis) and stood at EUR 1.68bn. Monthly nominal returns of VPFs ranged from -4.7% to -1.2%, while returns on an annual basis ranged from 1.0% to 14.7%. As regards the investment structure of VPFs, the largest part of the portfolio was made up of bonds and amounted to a 52.5% share in total net assets, followed by stocks with a 28.7% share and investment funds with an 8.7% share. The share of bonds in VPFs’ investments increased on a monthly basis by 0.6 p.p., while the equity share and the share of investments in investment funds declined by 0.5 p.p. and 0.4 p.p. respectively.

INSURANCE COMPANIES

In March 2026, there were 14 insurance companies operating on the market. The total premium collected in the first three months of 2026 amounted to EUR 533.7m, i.e. 8.3% more than in the same period in 2025. EUR 84.2m (15.8%) of this amount related to life insurance premium (9.5% more than in the same period last year), while EUR 449.6m (84.2%) related to non-life insurance premium (8.0% more at an annual level). The structure of the non-life insurance premium collected is dominated by motor vehicle liability insurance (33.9%), followed by insurance of road vehicles (20.5%), insurance against fire and natural disasters (9.6%) and health insurance (9.3%). The amount of claims settled in the first three months of 2026 reached EUR 311.8m, increasing by 5.7% compared to same period in 2025. EUR 83.6m (26.8%) of this amount related to life insurance (2.7% less at an annual level), while EUR 228.2m (73.2%) related to non-life insurance (9.2% more compared to the same period in 2025). In the total amount of claims settled in non-life insurance, the largest amounts related to motor vehicle liability insurance (40.3%), insurance of road vehicles (21.3%), health insurance (11.6%), and insurance against fire and natural disasters (8.5%).

CAPITAL MARKET

The total turnover on the Zagreb Stock Exchange reached EUR 103.2m in March 2026, increasing by 1.5% on a monthly basis. Market capitalisation decreased by 3.1% relative to the previous month and stood at EUR 55.1bn, of which stocks amounted to EUR 31.9bn, bonds to EUR 19.4bn, money market instruments to EUR 3.6bn and ETFs to EUR 151m. As regards sectoral stock indices, the largest monthly growth (8.7%) was recorded by CROBEXturist, while CROBEXkonstrukt recorded the largest monthly decline (by 2.5%). The main ZSE stock index CROBEX recorded a 5.58% monthly decline, whereas CROBEXtr recorded an almost identical monthly decline of 5.57%. As regards bond indices, CROBIS recorded a monthly decrease of 0.05%, while CROBIStr grew by 0.14% on a monthly basis. KONČAR d.d. was again the stock most traded in March, with its turnover amounting to EUR 17.9m (25.9% of the overall trade in stocks in March) and a 8.3% monthly price decrease.

INVESTMENT FUNDS

At the end of March 2026, there were 107 UCITS operating on the market. Their total net assets amounted to EUR 4.1bn, decreasing by EUR 118.3m (2.8%) compared to the previous month. Total monthly net payments to UCITS in March were negative, amounting to EUR -17.9m. Positive net payments were recorded only by money market funds (EUR 68.5m), while negative net payments were recorded by feeder funds (EUR -2.5m), balanced funds (EUR -3.6m), other funds (EUR -7.1m), bond funds (EUR -25.5m) and equity funds (EUR -47.6).

Money market funds’ net assets accounted for 37.1% of the total net assets of all UCITS at the end of March, equity funds made up 21.4%, bond funds accounted for 21.4%, other funds for 14.7%, while balanced funds and feeder funds made up 3.4% and 2.1% of the total UCITS’ net assets respectively. In March 2025, all types of UCITS except for money market funds recorded negative asset-weighted average monthly returns, namely equity funds (-5.0%), feeder funds (-4.0%), balanced funds (-3.9%), bond funds (-1.6%) and other funds (-1.5%). Money market funds recorded a positive asset-weighted average monthly return reaching 0.1%.

The assets of the Fund for Croatian Homeland War Veterans and Members of their Families amounted to EUR 199.0m (a 11.5% monthly decrease), with the monthly return of the fund reaching -11.3%.

The full report is available at Statistics/Monthly reports.