Overview
- The PFRDA board approved in principle a framework allowing Scheduled Commercial Banks to sponsor pension funds for the National Pension System to increase competition and protect subscribers.
- Eligibility will hinge on net worth, market capitalisation and prudential soundness aligned with RBI norms, and the criteria will apply to both new and existing pension funds once notified.
- The regulator revised the investment management fee to a slab-based structure that differentiates between government and non-government subscribers, with lower rates as non-government assets grow and application to Multiple Scheme Framework corpus separately.
- The annual regulatory fee remains at 0.015% of assets under management, with 0.0025% allocated to the Association of NPS Intermediaries for outreach and financial literacy.
- Governance changes include three trustee appointments to the NPS Trust—Dinesh Kumar Khara as chair, Swati Anil Kulkarni and Arvind Gupta—with NPS reported at over 9 crore subscribers and Rs 15.5 lakh crore in assets as of August 31.