SBI Pension Funds eyes Rs 65,000 crore AUM by end of fiscal

The largest pension fund manager (PFM) in the country, SBI Pension Funds is looking at achieving its assets under management to Rs 65,000 crore by the fiscal-end from the AUM at Rs 61,000 crore as on December 31, a top company official said.

"We are looking at achieving our assets under management to Rs 65,000 crore by the fiscal-end from the current AUM level of Rs 61,000 crore," SBI Pension Funds' newly-appointed managing director and chief executive Kumar Sharadindu told PTI here today.

At present, more than 25,000 branches of SBI group are selling the NPS products as point of presence. All the PoPs get Rs 125 for subscription of every NPS subscriber and hence it's a source of income for the bank too having its branches acting as PoPs.

"As of now, I'm encouraging the company's promoter State Bank of India to spread the message of National Pension Scheme for private sector people to join," he said adding, "SBI group has got a reach in rural and semi-urban areas, where there are lots of non-salaried people who are not in any formal employment anywhere and hence, small savings at their end can make their lives more comfortable on attaining the age of 60 years." This shall align with government's objective of moving our country towards a stable pension society, he said.

There are seven PFMs in the country at present and the pension fund regulator PFRDA is likely to give its nod to few more PFMs to kick off their operations in the country in near future.

Commenting on it, Sharadindu said that larger the number of PFMs, better will be the reach of the NPS products.

"We generally feel that the reach of NPS will get wider this way," he said.