The six shortlisted pension fund managers would have to manage retirement savings at a fee of 0.09 basis point.
The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) today shortlisted these fund managers and asked five of them players to match UTI’s lowest bid of 0.09 basis point. A basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point.
While UTI has no choice but to manage the pension contribution of private as well as government employees at 0.09 basis points, the others – ICICI Prudential Life, Reliance Capital Asset Management Company (AMC), IDFC AMC, SBI Pension Fund and Kotak Mahindra AMC — have the option not to match the lowest bid.
“But if they want to be a pension fund manager, the lowest bid has to be matched,” said PFRDA Chairman D Swarup.
In case one of the five bidders drops out of the race, the seventh lowest bidder – Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) – will bag the mandate.
UTI, SBI and LIC already have the mandate to manage the pension contribution of government employees, who set aside 10 per cent of their basic salary with a matching contribution coming from the government. While SBI and LIC were charging 3 basis points for this business, UTI was levying a fee of 5 basis points. Now, even the fee for this business would come down, Swarup said.
The successful bidders for the non-government business, who were shortlisted following an evaluation of technical and financial bids, will get up to March to set up fund houses so that the scheme can be operationalised from April 1.
According to the scheme worked out by the regulator, investors will have the option to choose from five-six investment options and the same will be conveyed to the fund managers. The investors will have the option to switch schemes and fund managers.