The Hindu Business Line : SBI PF seeks nod to manage parent bank’s employees pension funds

Mumbai, July 20 SBI Pension Fund has approached the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) for approval to manage a part of the Rs 14,000-crore corpus of the State Bank of India employees’ pension money.

The pension contributions of over two lakh employees of SBI are currently managed by an in-house trust.

Mr D. Swarup, Chairman, PFRDA, said the SBI Pension Fund has asked permission to manage the pension and superannuation fund of SBI employees.

“The matter is under consideration and it will be tabled before the board in its next meeting. A decision would be taken in a month or so,” he told Business Line.

Eyeing top slot

The SBI PF’s move assumes significance as this could, in one shot, provide it a large sum to manage and become the top player among the pension fund managers.

SBI Pension Fund, a wholly-owned subsidiary of SBI, was set up last year to take part in managing the New Pension Scheme (NPS) for the Central and State Government employees. It is also one of the six fund managers of the new pension scheme for the unorganised sector, launched by the Government in May. An official familiar with the development said the SBI management has given an in–principle approval to the proposal to hand over a portion of the bank’s pension money to SBI PF. In the case of NPS, the fee for managing the fund was decided by PFRDA though competitive bidding, which is currently less than one paise per Rs 100.

Considering the fee is too low, SBI, it is learnt, has also sought PFRDA approval for flexibility in charging higher rates in the case of managing pension funds of SBI employees.

Once it starts managing the SBI employees’ fund, it would be in a better position to seek the pension funds of other PSUs, said an analyst tracking SBI.

Under the new pension scheme for the government employees, SBI PF has so far received and invested Rs 1,117 crore.