Mutual funds in Slovakia

The collective investment market in Slovakia has long been growing in popularity. Between 2019 and 2024, the total volume of assets in domestic mutual funds increased from €7.5 billion to €11.3 billion – by 51%. This growth was driven by a combination of increased investor demand for mutual funds and the revaluation of fund assets. Notably, equity and real estate funds increased their share of total assets, while mixed and bond funds decreased.

Chart 1 Breakdown of mutual fund assets by asset type

A fund’s investment policy determines the instruments in which it invests. Slovak funds invest mainly in shares/units of other investment funds, which accounted for 41% of the aggregate portfolio at the end of December 2024. Most of these investments were in funds based in other euro area countries.

Equity investments followed, representing 25% of the total assets, while bonds accounted for 19%. Claims in the form of bank deposits and loans to real estate companies – types of investment common to real estate fund portfolios – made up 16%. Compared with 2019, we can see an increase in the share of equities (from 17% to 25%) and a decrease in the share of bank deposits and loans to real estate companies (from 26% to 16%), indicating an upturn in the risk component of fund portfolios.

Looking at the evolution of total mutual fund assets since 2019, there was a clear slowdown in 2020 due to the outbreak of the pandemic, followed by a decline in 2022 related to the start of the war in Ukraine. As a result, asset volumes remained relatively flat between 2021 and 2023.

Chart 2 Evolution of mutual fund assets by instrument

Of the total volume of investments by mutual funds in Slovakia as at the end of 2024, 38% – or €4.2 billion – remained invested in Slovakia. The largest component of the domestic investment portfolio comprised bank deposits and loans to real estate companies, amounting to €1.6 billion. As for the geographical breakdown of external investments, the largest were made in Ireland (€1.4 billion), Luxembourg (€1.2 billion), the United States (€1.1 billion) and Austria (€917 million). While investments in the United States consist mainly of equities, those in Ireland, Luxembourg and Austria are primarily in mutual fund units.

Figure 1 Geographical breakdown of Slovak mutual fund assets

Up to 94% of the total volume of units issued by Slovak funds is owned by domestic entities. Among these, the household sector is the dominant investor, holding as much as 86.7% of the total. Other investors include insurance companies (6.2%), other mutual funds (5.1%), non-financial corporations (1.3%) and financial intermediaries (0.4%). The share of investments from other sectors of the Slovak economy is negligible.

Figure 2 Holdings of Slovak investors in Slovak mutual funds by fund type

View an extended version of the figure

Households predominantly invest in mixed funds (33%), followed by equity funds (28%) and real estate funds (26%). Insurance companies and pension funds gravitate towards equity funds (40%) and mixed funds (34%). Investment funds prefer bond funds (45%) and real estate funds (33%). Non-financial corporations incline to real estate funds (42%), while financial intermediaries primarily invest in bond funds (43%).

Chart 3 Investors’ holdings in mutual funds by fund type

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