Korea’s pension industry grew 71 percent last year after more retirees-to-be subscribed to pension funds in one of the world’s fastest-aging societies, the financial regulator said Monday.

The size of retirement pension reserves came in at 49.92 trillion won by December 2011, posting a 71.3 percent jump from 29.15 trillion won a year earlier, the Financial Supervisory Services said.

“The flock to the pension market is creating a heated competition to introduce pension funds and insurance,” a FSS official said.

Commercial banks are in charge of nearly half of the market with a share of 48.6 percent. Life insurers are the next biggest player with 25.6 percent of the share, followed by brokerages holding 18 percent of the market.

While a majority of the country is still surveyed as passive investors in the National Pension Service, more are turning aggressive in their management of pension funds by subscribing to private products.

An analysis by the Labor Ministry said the pension fund balance at public and private agencies stood at 35.59 trillion won as of June last year, almost double the figure from June 2010 ― 18.98 trillion won.

The government expects retirement pension reserves to exceed 70 trillion won by the end of this year.

By Cynthia J. Kim (cynthiak@heraldcorp.com)