Wednesday, January 29 2014

 Armenian Finance Minister David Sargsyan has chosen a conservative pension fund.  

At today's press conference, Sargsyan said that the choice has been made by his family. At the same time, he refused to name the pension fund manager not to promote it. "Let it be a secret", the minister said.  

The minister also abstained from comments on the Constitutional Court's Jan 24 decision on suspension of sanctions against those who refuse to participate in the compulsory accumulative pension system. "I am not a lawyer. Therefore, I will abstain from any comments", he said.    

To recall, the voluntary accumulative pension system was introduced in Armenia on Jan 1 2011. The system became compulsory starting Jan 1 2014. According to the law, the minimal pension in the country will be equal to the minimum wage, while the basic pension will total 150% of the minimum wage.  The compulsory accumulative pension system will apply to the citizens born after Jan 1 1974 (the citizens below 40). Starting Jan 1 2014, 5% of their salaries will be transferred to their personal accumulative accounts. The government will transfer a similar amount (but no more than 25,000 drams). In November 2013 the Armenian Central Bank (CB) registered the heads of the pension funds C- QUADRAT Ampega Asset Management Armenia and Amundi-ACBA- Asset-Management on 11 December.