Tata, Axis, DSP join race to manage pension fund corpus

PFRDA got 10 bids to manage national pension fund corpus sources said, adding, all seven e xisting managers also bid to manage pension corpus

The pension fund regulator has received 10 applications, including from three new entities--Tata Mutual Fund, Axis Mutual Fun d and DSP Mutual Fund--to manage the National Pension System, an industry source said.

The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority had in December invited request for proposal to appoint pension funds to manage the pension system' s corpus.

All the seven existing interim pension fund managers--HDFC Pension Management Co, ICICI Prudential Pension Fund Management Co, Kotak Mahindra Pension Fund, LIC Pension Fund, SBI Pension Funds, UTI Retirement Solutions, and Birla Sun Life Pension Management--have also submitted their bids, the source said.

The request for proposal has not put any limit on the total number of pension fund managers. The last date for submitting bids was Jan 22.

The regulator had invited bids to appoint pension funds to manage schemes, including central and state government pension plans. "We have received good response to the request for proposal," a senior official at PFRDA said.

The PFRDA Board will meet later this month to finalise the fund managers, the official said.

The National Pension System had a total corpus of 5.49 trln rupees as on Dec 31, up 36.8% on year.

In a bid to make it more attractive for pension fund, the request for proposal has specified a slab structure for investment management fee instead of the earlier flat fee structure.