The higher foreign direct investment cap of 49 per cent in the insurance sector will push open doors for higher foreign investment in the country’s nascent pension sector as well.
This is because Section 24 of the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) Act links the foreign investment limit in the pension sector with the FDI ceiling in the insurance sector.
“Pension funds can now have enhanced FDI. The higher cap of 49 per cent as against the existing limit of 26 per cent will give more confidence and appetite to foreign investors to invest in the domestic pension sector, helping bring in not only capital but also technology and expertise in pension fund management,” said RV Verma, whole time member (finance), PFRDA.
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The higher FDI cap comes at a time when the PFRDA is also in the process of notifying statutory regulations for functioning of pension funds, aggregators and grievance redressal.
The National Pension System since its inception a decade ago has assets under management to the tune of Rs 78,921 crore and 84.64 crore subscribers.
While the PFRDA has three pension fund managers to manage the corpus of central government employees — LIC Pension Funds, SBI Pension Funds and UTI Retirement Solutions, it employs seven pension fund managers including SBI Pension Funds, UTI Retirement Solutions, LIC Pension Fund, Kotak Mahindra Pension Fund, Reliance Capital Pension Fund and ICICI Prudential Pension Funds Management Co for the private sector NPS.
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