Certificates issued by the Central Registry of Affiliates - REGOS for the period from 1 June 2023 to 13 June 2024 have been delivered to citizens' personal mailboxes in the ENA business system and e-Citizens system to all members of compulsory pension funds.

The delivered certificate contains the number of units of account in the personal account, the value of the assets in the personal account, the category of the pension fund in which these assets are invested, the pension company that manages that pension fund, the dates of payment and contributions sums that the member of the pension fund had in the corresponding period, information on the possible transfer to a pension fund of another category in the previous reporting period and the possibility of transferring to a pension fund of another category in the next year.

Pursuant to the provisions of Article 193 of the Act on Compulsory Pension Funds, REGOS has made the Certificate with data on transactions and balance on the personal account and compulsory pension fund membership available to 2,277,514 fund members. The certificate is thus available to all compulsory pension fund members in their mailboxes via the ENA business system which allows insured persons and other persons to receive electronic documents containing data concerning them which is kept in the REGOS Registry. For 1,304,232 fund members who have opened their personal user mailbox (OKP), REGOS has made the Certificate available through the e-Citizens system.

Citizens can check their personal account status and compulsory pension fund membership status, as well as all other information about their future pension, every working day at the Pension Information Centers in Zagreb, Split, Rijeka and Osijek.

Notice on membership in a compulsory pension fund

Amendments to the Act on Compulsory Pension Funds (“Official Gazette”, no. 156/23) brought changes related to the restriction of membership in certain categories of compulsory pension funds (hereinafter: OMF).

In order to encourage a more active participation of OMF members in making decisions that may ultimately affect their pension rights and future pension, we provide the most important information related to the possibility of:

• remaining in category A
• returning from category B to category A
• returning from category C to category B

First registration at OMF

All persons under the age of 40 who, for the first time after 01 January 2002, acquire the status of an insured person in pension insurance (either on the basis of employment, self-employment, other income, compensation), must choose their compulsory pension company and OMF category within one month from on the date of acquiring the status of an insured person. The insured person can choose category A, B or C OMF if they have more than 10 years until their right to old-age pension is exercised, while the insured person who has less than 10 years until their right to old-age pension is exercised does not have the option of choosing category A, but only category B or C OMF. If the insured person does not select their OMF within the prescribed period of one month, REGOS will assign them ex officio to one of the existing category A or B OMFs, depending on the membership restriction criteria.

The possibility of remaining in category A OMF

A member of a category A OMF is allowed to remain longer in category A by submitting a request to remain in category A.

This possibility applies to an OMF member who has more than 10 years and two months left until they can exercise the right to an old-age pension.

Act on Compulsory Pension Funds (hereinafter: the Act) allows an OMF member who, as of 1 April 2024, has less than 8 months until the automatic assignment to a category B OMF to submit a request to remain in category A until the day preceding the official assignment, including that day.

By submitting a request to remain in category A, the OMF member remains in a category A OMF for up to five years until the right to an old-age pension is exercised. After that, REGOS will assign them ex officio to a category B OMF. If a member of a category A OMF does not take advantage of the opportunity to submit a request to remain in category A and REGOS assigns them to category B, they can subsequently return to category A on their own, if there are five or more years left until their right to pension is exercised.

Change of OMF

An OMF member can change the OMF category once in a calendar year within the same pension company or by switching to OMF managed by another pension company. The OMF category and the compulsory pension company can be changed at the same time.

No exit fee shall be charged when changing the OMF category within the same compulsory pension company. When changing the OMF category, the exit fee shall be charged only if the pension company is changed at the same time. The fee for leaving OMF, if the pension company is changed at the same time, is calculated in the maximum amount of 0.8% in the first year, 0.4% in the second year and 0.2% in the third year of membership. After three years of consecutive membership in OMF, the fee for leaving OMF shall be charged.

An OMF member can switch to an OMF managed by another pension company if 15 days have passed since the previous change of OMF, regardless of whether the previous change was the result of switching to a pension fund which belongs to a different category but is managed by the same pension company, or switching to an OMF which is managed by another pension company.

An OMF member who changed the OMF category in the period from 1 January 2024 to 1 April 2024 cannot change the OMF category again in 2024 because the Act stipulates that the OMF category can only be changed once a year.

The possibility of changing the OMF category is shown in the following table:

With the entry of the Act into force, the official allocation of OMF members into category C has been abolished. OMF members who had already been transferred to category C OMF before the Act entered into force were given the opportunity to return to category B, but only if they have more than six months left until retirement.

An insured person who is a category C OMF member and who has less than six months left until they become entitled to a pension cannot change the category of the pension fund.

Selecting/changing the compulsory pension company and OMF category and submitting a request to remain in category A

Selection of OMD and of OMF category and submission of a request to remain in category A can be done at one of the four Pension Information Centers in Zagreb, Split, Rijeka and Osijek and at any FINA branch office at the counter where REGOS operations are carried out.

Selection/change of compulsory pension company and OMF category can also be done by using the REGOS electronic service "Compulsory pension fund (registration/change)" in the e-Citizens system with the use of an electronic ID card (e-OI) with an activated signature certificate.

In order to provide OMF members with timely information about their rights, the possibility of remaining in category A, returning to category A or category B, and the method and deadlines for exercising these options, REGOS will deliver a Notice with all relevant information to OMF members by electronic means. Therefore, we ask OMF members to check the delivered notifications in “My inbox” through the REGOS electronic service, so that they can timely exercise the options related to the restriction of membership in a particular OMF category.

The Central Registry of Affiliates (REGOS) launched the My Pension portal, which provides citizens with access to individualized information from the pension system in the Republic of Croatia and a projection of the amount of the future pension starting from the very first time they enter the labor market. The My Pension portal can be accessed via the mojamirovina.hr link and the e-Citizens system.

Upon accessing the mojamirovina.hr website, an anonymous pension calculator opens for the users, which displays the calculation of the projected amount of pension income from pension insurance in the Republic of Croatia on the basis of anonymously and freely entered requested relevant data. By logging in through the e-Citizens system and entering required credentials, one can access a personalized pension calculator.

The personalized pension calculator enables citizens to view the projection of their pension amount based on real data kept in connection with them in the pension insurance system, as well as additional projections of the future pension amount based on changes in parameters that affect the pension income level from the very first employment. Until now, insured persons were able to find out the amount of their future pension one year before retirement at the earliest, while now they can access this information at any time and from the moment they enter the labor market thanks to the My Pension portal.

A digital platform was implemented as part of the project “MY PENSION - improvement of REGOS services on the labor market” with a total value of EUR 7,179,749.15, co-financed by the European Social Fund in the amount of 85%, which REGOS carried out in cooperation with the Croatian Pension Insurance Institute (HZMO) and with the advisory support of the World Bank in the development and creation of the pension simulation model, as well as the individual pension calculator. Projections of amounts within the pension simulation model are based on the assumptions of future developments, as well as on the legislative framework governing pension insurance in the Republic of Croatia. The latest tax and pension law changes effective from 1 January 2024 are also included in the projections.

Simple access to the personalized pension calculator through the e-Citizens system shows three simulations of the amount of the future pension: A, B and C.

Simulation A shows the pension rights acquired so far and the state of pension savings. The amount of pension shown represents the projection of the amount of old-age pension on the day of calculation, i.e. with the assumption that the user would no longer work from the day of calculation until the fulfillment of the pension requirements according to the Pension Insurance Act.

Simulation B shows the projection of the amount of the future pension assuming that the future wages of the insured person will be at the level of the current salary until their retirement. It is a projection of the amount of the old-age pension that the user will receive if they maintain their current pension insurance status from that moment until their retirement. If the user is employed at that moment, it is assumed that they will continue to work the same number of working hours (full-time or part-time) and will continue to receive wage at the level of the one they have at the time of calculation, which will increase in the future at the same rate as the average wage in the Republic of Croatia. Likewise, if the user is not employed at that time, it is assumed that they will not work until retirement.

Simulation C enables data input according to the user's free choice. The simulation displays the expected pension amount in the selected retirement option and future wage and other income trends. This simulation allows the users to see the impact that changes in relevant data during working life, such as wage and retirement age, have on the amount of future pension. In this way, the insured persons can predict the effect of decisions made during their working life on the amount of future pension income from the first employment relationship, and thus influence their financial future and the amount of their future pension by making timely decisions.

The platform also allows users to download to their computers a detailed tabular display of all the data which serves as the basis for calculating the projected amount of pension, so that insured persons can, for the first time ever, view the data concerning them which is kept in the pension insurance system at any time and in a simple way. In this way, citizens can also notice any possible deficiencies in the entered data regarding their period of service and paid contributions and take timely action to update or supplement the said data if necessary.

The My Pension portal ensures complete transparency and availability of information kept for citizens in the pension insurance system in the Republic of Croatia and enables them to plan their financial future by consulting the projections of the future pension amount. This portal was created with the aim of developing citizens' financial and pension literacy and increasing the transparency and ease of access to information from the pension system.

All additional information about the use of the portal can be obtained by calling the phone number 01/4898 999, via the e-mail address mojamirovina@regos.hr or in person at one of the four Pension Information Centers in Zagreb, Split, Rijeka and Osijek, where citizens can try out the portal and get informed about their future pension with professional support provided by REGOS and HZMO employees.

The changes introduced by the pension reform from 1 January 2024 are prescribed by the Act on Compulsory Pension Funds (Official Gazette, no. 156/23), the Pension Insurance Companies Act (Official Gazette, no. 156/23), the Pension Insurance Act (ZOMO) and the Act on Supplement to Pensions Acquired in Accordance with ZOMO (Official Gazette, No. 156/23). We provide you with a brief overview of the most important changes below.

• Abolition of the entry fee

The entry fee, which, up to this point, was calculated at the rate of 0.5% of each contribution payment and forwarded to compulsory pension companies, is abolished by the amendment of Article 63 of the ZOMF <Act on Compulsory Pension Funds>. Starting with 1 January 2024, the entry fee for all companies shall not be calculated on the pillar II contribution payments that are connected by insured persons.

• Official allocation of newly employed persons into OMF according to new criteria

Amendments to Article 91 of the ZOMF stipulate that if an insured person does not select a pension fund within one month of setting up the compulsory pension insurance, REGOS will allocate them ex officio to a category A pension fund, provided that there are 10 or more years left until the reference day. An insured person who has less than 10 years left until the reference day will be allocated to a category B pension fund and, according to these amendments, there is no longer any possibility of official allocation of newly employed persons to a category C OMF.

• Official allocation of category A OMF members to a category B OMF after the prescribed deadline

Amendments to Article 91 of the ZOMF stipulate that a pension fund member who was assigned ex officio to a category A OMF will be assigned ex officio to a category B OMF upon the expiry of a 15-year period from the date of allocation to a category A OMF unless they have previously personally chosen the category of the pension fund.

• Amendments to the Statement on Pension Selection from the pillars I and II

Amendments to Article 104 of the ZOMF stipulate the obligation of REGOS to provide fund members with a notification on the informative pension calculation in order to help them make a decision on the selection of pension. It is prescribed that if a fund member chooses a pension from the pillars I and II but does not conclude a pension contract with MOD within one year from the date of the remittance of funds to MOD, MOD will, under the conditions and within the time limit prescribed in Article 126 of the MOD Act, transfer the remittances to the state budget, less the amount of the actual costs incurred by MOD in relation to keeping those funds. After transferring the funds to the state budget, HZMO will determine the pension for the user as if they had been insured only in the compulsory pension insurance based on generational solidarity.

New forms of Statements A and B on Pension Selection are available on the REGOS website.

• Amendments prescribed by the Pension Insurance Companies Act

Amendments to Article 112 of the Pension Insurance Companies Act from 1 January 2024 introduce additional flexibility of the conditions for a lump-sum payment to beneficiaries of the basic old-age or anticipated old-age pension. It is stipulated that such a payment can be contracted if the basic old-age or basic anticipated old-age pension from the pillar I is higher than the lowest pension according to the Pension Insurance Act (ZOMO).

The lump-sum payment disbursed at the beneficiary’s request is increased from the current 15% of the total remittance to MOD to a maximum of 20%. The pension beneficiary will be able to choose the lump-sum payment in the amount between 0% and 20% of the total remittance to MOD before concluding the contract.

For funds remitted to MOD before the date of entry of this Act into force (1 January 2024), the beneficiary has 12 months to conclude a pension contract with MOD, starting from the date of entry of the Act into force. If they do not do so, MOD will remit the funds to the state budget within 30 days of the expiry of that period. In that case, HZMO will determine the pension as if the beneficiary had been insured only on the basis of generational solidarity.

• Vesting age for an old-age pension for women in 2024

Pursuant to the Pension Insurance Act of 1 January 2024, amendments with regards to the change of the reference day for exercising the right to an old-age pension for women entered into force. According to Article 180 of the ZOMO (Official Gazette, no. 102/19) an insured person – a woman, becomes entitled a pension upon completing 15 years of pensionable service and, in 2024, when she is 63 years and 6 months old.

• Amendments prescribed by the Act on Supplement to Pensions Acquired in Accordance With ZOMO

Amendments to the Act on Supplement to Pensions Acquired in Accordance With ZOMO increase the supplement to the portion of the basic pension from the pillar I from 20.25% to 27% for the pensionable service completed since the introduction of the pillar II, i.e. from 1 January 2002 onwards. This provides the beneficiaries of pensions from both pension pillars with a uniform rate of 27% supplement to the pension from the pillar I, regardless of when the pensionable service was completed (before or after the introduction of the pension pillar II).

Increase of the supplement to the basic pension from the pillar I from 20.25% to 27% for the pensionable service completed from 1 January 2002 will affect the increase of the basic pension from the pillar I and thus the increase of the total pension for the beneficiaries of pensions from both pillars.