National Statistical Institute

"Annual Business Statistics" Department

Desislava Asenova

Senior expert

2, P. Volov Str.; 1038 Sofia, Bulgaria

[email protected]

+359 2 9857 477

The SBS survey of pension funds covers activities of all pension funds, which are licensed in accordance with national legislation. All of them are classified in class 65.30 by NACE.BG-2008 and class 66.02 by NACE.BG-2003. Since 2008 the data are compiled by NACE.BG-2008.

The annual data of voluntary pension funds are aggregated in class 65.30 by NACE.BG-2008 and class 66.02 by NACE.BG-2003.

· National Classification of Economic Activities (NCEA-2003, for international use NACE.BG-2003) - in force till 31.12.2007;

· Classification of Economic Activities (CEA-2008, for international use NACE.BG-2008) - in force since 01.01.2008.

 Pension funds, classified in class 65.30 by NACE.BG-2008 from 2008 onwards, and class 66.02 by NACE.BG-2003 for the period 2005-2007.

The main SBS indicators are:

· "Number of enterprises" (11 11 0) - all pension funds constituted as common funds, managed by management pension companies which are registered, licensed and supervised.

· "Turnover" (12 11 0) - All pension contributions, due during the financial year, in respect of pension contracts, such as pension contributions receivable from members, pension contributions receivable from employers, incoming transfers (sums transferred from other pension funds) and other pension contributions.

· "Production value" (12 12 0) - The amount of Turnover plus investment income plus other income minus total expenditure on pensions minus net change in technical provisions.

· "Expenditure on pensions" (48 03 0) - all kinds of expenditure to the members of the pension scheme and their dependants, outgoing transfers (sums transferred to other pension funds), and other payments.

· "Total investments of Pension Funds" (48 10 0) - Sum of the following variables: Land and buildings, Investments in affiliated enterprises and participating interests, Shares and other variable-yield securities, Units in undertakings for collective investment in transferable securities, Debt securities and other fixed-income securities, Participation in investment pools, Loans guaranteed by mortgages and other loans not covered elsewhere, Other investments.

· "Members" (48 70 0) - total number of members whose pension schemes are under the administration of pension funds. This includes the number of active members, deferred members and retired persons.

The basic unit of SBS survey is a pension fund. 

 Pension fund is an enterprise registered, licensed and supervised as pension fund in accordance with actual legislation.

The SBS survey of  pension funds is exhaustive and the statistical population includes all enterprises classified in class 65.30 by NACE.BG-2008 from 2008 onwards, class 66.02 by NACE.BG-2003 for the period 2005 - 2007.

The data refer to the activities of pension funds carried out in the country.

2005 - to the last reference year.

Not available.

· Number (enterprises, members);

· Thousand BGN (all other indicators).

Calendar year.

European SBS Regulations:

· Regulation (EC) - 295/2008 of 11 March 2008 concerning SBS (recast);

· Regulation (EC) - 250/2009 of 11 March 2009 - definition of characteristics and technical format for the transmission of SBS data;

· Regulation (EC) - 251/2009 of 11 March 2009 - the series of data for SBS;

· Regulation (EC) - 223/2009 of 11 March 2009 - statistical confidentiality and transmission of confidential data to Eurostat;

· Regulation (EC) - 275/2010 of 30 March 2010 - criteria for the evaluation of the quality of SBS data;

· Regulation (EC) - 1893/2006 of 20 December 2006 - establishing NACE Rev.2;

· Regulation (EC) - 58/97 of 20 December 1996 - concerning SBS;

· Regulation (EC) - 2700/98 of 17 December 1998 - definition of characteristics, amended by Regulation (EC) - 1670/2003 of 1 September 2003;

· Regulation (EC) - 2701/98 of 17 December 1998 - the series of data for SBS, amended by Regulation (EC) - 1669/2003 of 1 September 2003;

· Regulation (EC) - 2702/98 of 17 December 1998 - technical format for the transmission of SBS data, amended by Regulation (EC) - 1668/2003 of 1 September 2003;

· Regulation (EC) - 1618/1999 of 23 July 1999 - criteria for the evaluation of the quality of SBS data;

· Regulation (EC) - 1614/2002 of 6 September 2002 - amending the definitions, data series and technical format;

· Regulation (EC) - 439/2014 of 29 April 2014 - amending the data series and technical format.

Bulgarian legislation:

· Law on Statistics;

· Social Insurance Code ;

· National Statistical Programme;

· Accounting and tax legislation.

The SBS data of pension funds are provided to Eurostat in accordance with the SBS Regulations. The same data are used in data exchange under signed agreements, ensuring the protection of confidential information.

Regulation (EC) - 223/2009 of 11 March 2009 defines common criteria for protection of confidential data and methods for sending the information to and its use by Eurostat. The Law on Statistics ensures the protection of statistical confidentiality and the use of individual data of enterprises for statistical purposes only.

The individual (primary) data are confidential according to the Law on Statistics and European legislation. To ensure their protection and inability to be identified, the aggregated indicators are also defined as confidential when:

· Criterion A - the indicator is calculated from one or two enterprises;

· Criterion B - one enterprise forms 85% or more of the total value of this indicator.

The data are published in accordance with the deadline specified in the Release Calendar presenting the results of the statistical surveys carried out by the National Statistical Institute.

The calendar is available on the NSI website: http://www.nsi.bg/en/node/480

Data are published on the NSI website and are available to all users of statistical information.

Yearly.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

The SBS data are available to all users of the NSI website under the heading Business statistics / Annual Business statistics - Structural Business Statistics - Financial Enterprises: http://www.nsi.bg/en/node/8195

Not available.

Information service on request, according to the Rules for dissemination of statistical products and services of NSI.

Eurostat's methodological manual concerning SBS data of pension funds, based on the European legislation on SBS and the harmonised national legislation in the same field: http://www.nsi.bg/sites/default/files/files/metadata/SBS_Methodology_3_F_en.pdf

National quality reports according to the SBS Regulations: http://www.nsi.bg/en/node/8195

This includes the improvement of the collecting of primary data system, which ensures strict arithmetical and logical input control. The additional output control is made when are registered the big differences in the value of given indicator between two consecutive years.

This is made in accordance with the standard criteria for assessing the quality - relevance, accuracy and reliability, timeliness, comparability and coherence.

The main users of SBS data are:

· Eurostat and other international organisations;

· Interested state institutions under signed agreements;

· Research institutes, universities, economic analysts and students;

· Private non-governmental organisations, agencies, associations, media, etc.;

· Directorates and departments in the NSI.

There has been no study of user satisfaction, but no cases of outstanding requests for information are registered.

Full compliance with Bulgarian and EU legislation.

The information for calculation of the SBS data of pension funds is based on annual account reports of pension funds, as there is full commitment of input data.

The SBS survey of pension funds is exhaustive and there are no sampling errors.

Not available.

The deadline for the publication of SBS data on national level is t+11 months. In the Eurostat the SBS data of pension funds are send in t+11 months, where t is the reference year.

The deadlines under item 15.1 are strictly followed.

For state territory the data are geographical comparable.

The comparability of the data is limited by the use of different classifications of economic activities (NACE.BG-2008 and NACE.BG-2003), if there is a difference in the scope of the activity. The data series of pension funds are fully comparable for the period 2005 - the last reference year.

Not applicable.

The SBS data of pension funds are logically related with data obtained by account reports.

NSI of Bulgaria is making extraordinary efforts to reduce the respondents' burden. Developed by NSI off-line based system for collecting and processing of pension funds reports and ensured methodological and technical assistance to respondents during the reporting campaign are highly appreciated by respondents and help to reduce their workload.

The National policy, as well as Eurostat's, allows the revision of already published data if there are serious reasons. Any revisions made in the national data are reflected in the aggregated data for the European Union.

The revised data replace the already published data as soon as possible after the revision is made.

The main data sources for calculating the SBS data of pension funds are special "Annual report of activities of pension funds" and administrative data from Financial Supervision Commission.

Yearly.

Exhaustively for all pension funds covered in the SBS survey.

Data validation is made by additional logical input control and comparison between the output data and the results of the previous year and other surveys, carried out by NSI.

The survey is exhaustive and further data evaluation is not made.

Not available.