Pension Funds

A pension fund shall be a pool of assets, established under a contract and not having legal personality, owned jointly by several persons in a partial ownership and the ownership shares represented by units in the pension fund. Each unit shall represent the ownership of a proportional part of the assets held in the pension fund structure. The pension fund shall be managed by a management company according to a pension fund contract with the unit-holders, with the objective to increase the assets for the unit-holders. Investments of the assets of the pension fund will be made in accordance with the pension fund contract. A person may become a unit-holder in a pension fund only by entering into a pension fund contract with the management company.
2. Before signing the pension fund contract, the management company shall ensure that the person considering becoming a unit-holder understands that it is the appropriate investment and that he or she has been informed in detail about the risks related to investing in the pension fund and that the agency risk, credit risk, market risk and any other relevant risk related to investing in the pension fund has been clearly explained.
The main functions of a management company are to collect and invest funds in accordance with the principle of risk-distribution (diversification), for the purpose of providing retirement benefits for the persons that participate in the pension fund. The management company may also administer the payments of pension benefits.
Management company shall be established as joint-stock company with unlimited duration, where at least 51 percent of the shares or voting rights are owned by banks or financial institutions. They shall be one-tier management organizations in accordance with the Company Law.
Management companies shall have their registered offices in Albania and cannot be a branch of a foreign company.
A management company must appoint a depositary that shall be