Pension market set for deep reforms; foreign funds to get more leeway

Deep reforms are on the anvil in the country’s pension market, with plans to permit foreign pension funds to set up independent pension trusts and make the Pension Fund Regulatory Development Authority (PFRDA) the sole authority to allow a pension product into the market. This could entail a thorough rewrite of the pension products that insurance companies and some mutual funds offer today in the fast-expanding market for retirement products in India.

These are part of some 30 changes that the finance ministry is planning to bring in by amending the PFRDA Act of 2013. The amendment will also involve