Turkey accumulates TL 1B in automatic BES

With the introduction of automatic enrollment in the Individual Pension System (BES in Turkish) on Jan. 1, 2017, a total of 3,283,856 individuals have joined since the beginning of the year, raising more than TL 1 billion ($290 million) in eight months.

The BES system was introduced to supplement Turkey's social security system on Oct. 27, 2003. It was aimed at preventing the decrease in an individual's welfare levels after retirement and at the same time contribute to the national economy through funds raised from long-term savings in the country.

It has continued to grow as a result of the automatic involvement of every wage-earning Turkish citizens under the age of 45. Since the beginning of the year, the Pension Monitoring Center (EGM) has been publishing the statistics related to BES under two separate headings including "BES Key Indicators" and "Automatic Enrolment Key Indicators." According to the "Automatic Involvement Key Indicators," some 3,283,856 individuals joined BES by Aug. 31, raising a total of TL 1,029,027,189. Meanwhile, the average savings amount per worker participating in the system stood at TL 313.3. According to the "BES Key Indicators," at the end of Aug. 31 this year, the total number of participants in the system was 6,831,589, who raised a total of TL 63,163,427,091 in funds. In the meantime, the amount of state subsidy funds was at TL 9,463,118,361 during the same period, while the number of individuals retired through BES rose to 58,485.