What is FONDex

With a view to increasing the transparency of operation of voluntary pension funds (VPF), and enhancing the comparability of movement of VPF investment units (IUs), the NBS has developed FONDex, an index serving as a single indicator of the trend of movement of the VPF system. For the sake of illustration, FONDEX may be observed as the value of the IU of an (imaginary) fund representing a sum of all funds that are operating in Serbia.

The FONDex value is calculated daily, by multiplying the index value on the previous business day and the weighted average chain indices of values of IUs for each fund. Net VPF assets serve as weights, so the impact of each VPF IU’s value on the FONDex value is proportionate to its market share. The baseline calculation date is 15 November 2006, when the first VPF started to operate, and the baseline FONDex value is 1000.
It should be noted that:

  • Past movements in index (IU) values are not a guarantee of future results. Future values may be higher or lower than the past ones.
  • A percentage change in FONDex (like in any other index) relative to some previous date is more relevant than its absolute value at a given moment. This particularly holds true when comparing the movement of IU values of individual funds with the movement in FONDex.
  • By its composition, FONDex is not intended for comparison with IUs of individual funds. A higher or lower value of an IU relative to FONDex does not suggest better or poorer VPF performance.
  • FONDex is not intended for making investment decisions and is not an index on the basis of which one can identify over- or under-performance of VPFs by comparing IUs.
  • For adequate comparison of return across VPFs, one needs to have information about the composition and/or degree of riskiness of investment of VPF assets.

Formula:

fondex_formula

Where:

  • FONDex(t) – FONDex value on day t
  • FONDex(t-1) – FONDex value on a business day preceding t
  • n – number of VPFs operating on day t
  • IJ(i,t) – value of VPF’s IU (i) on day t
  • IJ(i,t-1) – value of VPF’s IU (i) on a business day preceding t
  • NI(i,t) – net value of VPF assets i on day t
  • FONDex(t0) – FONDex value on the baseline calculation date (15 November 2006)

Note:

Movement in FONDex values and its comparison with the movement in VPF IUs’ values cannot be considered NBS’s recommendation for choosing a VPF. While the NBS discloses VPF IU and FONDex values with due care, it cannot be held responsible for consequences of investment decisions made based on the use of the index and VPF IU values.