According the publication of the Croatian National Bank (HNB) called 'Makrobonitetna Analiza" tackling the issues of analyses of macro-financial reliability, although the Croatian financial sector is still bank-centric, the share of banks has been on a constant fall. In 1999, banks' shares was 87.7 percent falling to 84.7 percent in 2002. In 2003, the banking sector's share fell to 83.2 percent and last year to 81.6 percent.
The same happened with insurance companies. In 1999, their share in the assets of the Croatian financial industry totalled 7.2 percent, which was far from the then third-ranked close-end investment funds and Privatisation and Investment Funds (PIFs).
On the other hand in 2004, leasing agencies as well as the Compulsory Pension Funds (OMF) registered a rise in their share in the assets. The share of OMF funds rose from two percent in 2003 to 2.9 percent in 2004. The share of open-end investment funds rose from 1.4 to 1.8 percent and the share of savings banks from 1.5 to 1.8 percent.
The HNB. however, points out the fact that leasing agencies registered stronger growths in 2002 and 2003 with annual growth rates reaching 100 percent, while in 2004 this rate came to 24 percent when assets of the said agencies totalled 15.6 billion kuna. Last year, leasing on cars and real estate prevailed with not so often cases of leasing on vehicles, machinery and equipment for economic purpose.
In 2004, insurance companies registered a 9-percent rise in the collection of gross insurance premium, which indicated a continued moderate growth over several years. About three quarters of the premium were non-life insurance which rose by seven percent, while life insurance iclimbed by 16 percent.
The OMF funds also saw a continued rise in their assets which totalled 8.1 billion kuna at the end of 2004. Although they grew threefold, the assets of voluntary pension funds totalled a mere 96 million kuna, which is why these funds still have a minor role in the national financial industry.
Last year was very favourable for open-end investment funds the assets of which climbed by 25 percent to 4.9 billion kuna.