Iceland’s Brú Pension Fund achieved a real return of 4 per cent in 2025, while its nominal return was 7.8 per cent, its full-year results have revealed.

Its financial statements for 2025 have now been approved by its Board.

Brú said 2025’s performance is considered “acceptable” compared to previous years, despite significant volatility and increased global economic tensions.

“Returns on domestic equities exceeded the benchmark, and returns on international equity markets remained strong. Inflation, however, remained persistent, and interest rates stayed high,” it stated.

Furthermore, the fund’s green asset ratio ranged between 0.4 per cent and 2.9 per cent across its divisions at year-end.

Over the longer term, Brú’s average return over the past five years was 1.7 per cent, and 3.1 per cent over the past 10 years.

The latter is slightly below the benchmark typically set by pension funds, which is a 3.5 per cent annual real return.

Its net assets under management at the year-end amounted to ISK 624.4bn, up from ISK 557.2bn at the end of 2024, representing an increase of ISK 67.2bn year-on-year.

Of this, the net assets of the Pension Fund of Employees of Akureyri Municipality amounted to ISK 14.6bn at the beginning of 2025; the fund was merged into Brú in a new E division at the start of 2025.

Total contributions during the year amounted to ISK 33.3bn in 2025 (2024: ISK 30.7bn), of which ISK 6.8bn was supplementary contributions. On average, 22,806 individuals paid contributions to the fund during the year.

In addition, the pension fund paid ISK 25.6bn in pensions in 2025, up from ISK 21.4bn, including ISK 20bn in retirement pensions and ISK 3.2bn in disability pensions. On average, 18,095 individuals received pension payments from Brú in 2025.

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