New members are flocking to voluntary funds at an unprecedented rate

Voluntary pension funds registered nearly 21 percent more new members last year than the previous year, 40,028, which has not been the case for many years – points out Mihály Barát, financial journalist at BiztosDöntés.hu. Thanks to this – he adds – the slow increase in the number of members in the sector continued in 2025, and the number of registered fund members exceeded 1.082 million by the end of the year.

According to data just released by the Hungarian National Bank, membership fee revenues have been very good at voluntary pension funds. The amount of membership fees paid by members jumped by more than 26 percent, to 166.5 billion forints, while the amount of employer membership fee contributions increased by 4.5 percent year-on-year, to 51.2 billion forints.

It is noteworthy that, in parallel with the increase in membership fee income, the amount of tax refunds after payments also increased and reached a new high, exceeding 22.3 billion forints.

“The temporary permission to use pension fund savings for housing purposes reduced the balance by 107.8 billion forints in 2025, but the assets managed by the funds still set a record by December, reaching 2412.5 billion forints”

– highlights the financial journalist of BiztosDöntés.hu.

According to central bank statistics, voluntary health and mutual funds already had nearly 1.257 million members at the end of 2025, which reflects a 5.8 percent – ​​almost 70 thousand people – increase on an annual basis. In parallel with the increase in the number of members, membership fee revenues are also growing nicely at health funds: the amount of membership fees paid by members increased by 16.3 percent, to HUF 86.8 billion, while employer membership fee contributions increased by 13.7 percent, to close to HUF 11.4 billion.

It is particularly noteworthy, however, that the amount spent on mortgage repayments increased by nearly HUF 1.9 billion in 2025, and – also setting a new record – approached HUF 4.9 billion.

The beginning of the year is not considered a key period in terms of voluntary fund campaigns, according to the pension fund and health fund calculators of BiztosDöntés.hu, several funds are running membership recruitment campaigns.

As for pension funds, in the OTP Pension Fund campaign called “Doubly surprise your employees!” running until the end of June 2026, employees whose employer is an employer member of the OTP Pension Fund and chooses the OTP Pension Fund employer contribution or donation as a benefit can receive a ten thousand forint credit to their individual account. For the credit, the employer must have at least 10