Page 23 - Turkinsurance Digital Magazine

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Auto Enrollment System (OKS in Turkish acronym), which was launched in 2017, is
reshaping the demographics of the Individual Pension System (BES in Turkish acronym)

in Turkey. Total number of participants including those gained via auto-enrollment has
exceeded 11.9 million as of August 2019. Average age of BES participants increased
up to 40.1. Escalation of the number of male participants is another striking change

brought by OKS.

As of August 2019, the number of BES participants exceeded 9.7 and 44, 25 percent were between 45 and 55, and 10 percent were
million, while total fund size grew over 18 billion USD. Number of older than 55.
employees that have joined the system via OKS also exceeded 5.1
million with the total fund size going above 1.1 billion USD. Ac- At the end of 2017, statistic on the monthly contribution payments
cording to the Individual Pension System Progress Report of 2017 according to the age range of participants shows that the amount
prepared by Pension Monitoring Center, 74.1 percent of valid con- of contributions increase in parallel with the age of participants.
tracts in BES consist of individual pension contracts, 18.5 percent Monthly average contributions by participants younger than 25
are group individual contracts, and 7.4 percent are non-contributo- stood at 26.92 USD, followed by participants between 25 and 34
ry group contracts. years old with 30.56 USD, participants between 35 and 44 years
old with 38.03 USD, participants between 45 and 55 years old
14.6 percent of Turkish population have joined pension with 45.85 USD, and participants older than 55 with 50.19 USD.
system Monthly average regular contribution planned to be paid for con-
11.9 million of over 82 million people living in Turkey have joined tracts that were in force as of the end of 2017 was 38.38 USD.
the pension system as of August 2019. This means that 14.6 percent
of the population are in the system. According to the report, while A different statistic indicates that 59.2 percent of BES participants
the average age of BES participants stands at 40.1, the weighted are males, while 40.8 percent are females. The report also states
average age is 46.1 years for total fund size. The 2016 statistics that 55.5 percent of fund size of BES participants belong to male
show that the average age of BES participants was 39.4, while the participants, while 44.5 percent belong to female participants.
weighted average age was 45.5 years for total fund size. As to the While 14.1 percent of Turkey’s population was in the BES system
distribution of contracts that were in force in 2017; the age group as of 2017; 16.5 percent of male population and 11.6 percent of the
between 25 and 34 gets the highest rate, followed by the group of female population entered the system.
35-44 years, 44-55 years, under 25, and older than 55, respectively.
17% of BES participants are housewives
35-44 is the dominant age group in BES According to the distribution of BES participants by their occu-
On the other hand, when we analyze the ages of participants with in- pations, 25.3 percent of them are self-employed, 17.1 percent are
dividual or group individual contracts that were in force as of 2017; housewives, 15.6 percent are workers, 8.4 percent are public of-
we see that 5 percent of those participants were younger than 25, ficers. 6.1 percent of the participants are teachers, 4.9 percent are
26 percent were between 24 and 34, 34 percent were between 35 retirees from SSI (social security system), 3.2 percent are farmers,

Distribution of individual and group
individual contracts in-force by the
Total population
(82.003.882) ages of participants

34%

26% 25%
Number of BES participants
(6.797.880)

10%
Number of OKS
participants 5%
(5.192.532)

25 yaş altı 25-34 yaş 35-44 yaş 45-55 yaş 56 yaş ve
üzeri
Reference: EGM (Pension Monitoring Center),TUİK
(Turkish Statistical Institute) Reference:Pension Monitoring Center
Figures are dated August 2019.