Romania finmin may propose making private pensions optional

BUCHAREST: Romania's finance ministry aims to have a proposal to make a mandatory private pension scheme optional by the end of June, Finance Minister Eugen Teodorovici said on Wednesday.

Romania overhauled its communist-era pension system in 2008, making it compulsory for working Romanians under 35 to contribute to a "second pillar" of private pension schemes as well as their state pension. Pension funds had assets worth more than 40 billion lei ($10.63 billion) in February.

The ruling Social Democrats have gone backward and forwards on plans for the private pension scheme throughout 2017, weighing options such as dismantling the second pillar altogether, reducing contributions or making them optional.

"We are still discussing," Teodorovici told reporters. "I hope to put a proposal draft on the government's table by the end of the semester."