CAMS partners with NPS as one of its Central Record-Keeping Agencies

Computer Age Management Services (CAMS), one of India's largest registrar, transfer agent and financial infrastructure and services providers, said on March 17 that it has partnered with the National Pension System (NPS) as one of its major CRAs (Central Record-Keeping Agent) in order to further "PFRDA’s vision to broad-base the services for NPS subscribers and ecosystem in India". 

Anuj Kumar, who is the president and CEO of CAMS, commented on the development saying that "In recent times, NPS had been one of the progressive advisory solutions for retirement, complemented by a multitude of subscriber friendly conveniences, features, and choices. It has also demonstrated visibility, due to which awareness around it has been increasing progressively. As a CRA, we will look forward to playing the role of a catalyst and assisting PFRDA in the growth of the overall NPS category and in the ultimate objective of upgrading financial security for the retirement deals of Indian citizens".

For the uninitiated, a CRA is responsible for managing the entire administrative and structural infrastructure that involves not just recordkeeping or providing customer services for all NPS subscribers but also entails receiving, transferring, and implementing instructions from the subscriber to the concerned party.

In this case, CRA serves as a bridge or an operational interface between PFRDA and other NPS intermediaries such as pension fund managers, annuity service providers, trustee bank, etc. Notably, CDSL and K-Fin continue to serve as the existing CRAs of NPS.

CAMS has been instrumental in the development of the Indian mutual fund industry, powering the operations for over 140 financial institutions and engaging as a catalyst to the mutual funds.

Kumar further continued, saying that "In the category of retirement solutions, we will bring customer friendly new generation technologies and applications and elevate the service standards and experience that investors enjoy and we will engage with ecosystem participants to bring greater efficiency to their operations. We have the capability, the experience, and the attitude to make a meaningful contribution, given the way we have set up service mesh. We will bring our technology lead innovations focus to make enrolling into NPS and managing the account a simple, digitally enabled, and seamless process. The entire platform is going to be hosted on a cloud infrastructure of first very first in the NPS ecosystem".

On the occasion, Supratim Bandyopadhyay - Chairman, PFRDA, also lauded the partnership, noting their "role in the mutual fund industry".

"With 35 years of background and being the largest registrar and transfer agent commanding more than two-thirds of the market, I believe in the capability and presence of what CAMS has to offer in this venture", he noted.

Calling CRAs as the "fulcrum of the entire system" and a very significant actor in the process, Bandyopadhyay also observed how the number of customers, particularly from the retail and corporate segment has skyrocketed almost three times in the last four years.

Per the official site, the system currently has 1,55,20,187 subscribers with a total AUM (Asset Under Management) of about Rs 6.9 lakh crore.

Additionally, Bandyopadhyaya also hinted towards some upcoming changes and developments in the system like introducing a minimum assured returns scheme and more.

"We see that a lot of people want to continue with this system. Currently, people have the option of staying invested up to 75 years of age and entering the system at 70. Most of our employees are from the Indian government. So, for instance, if government servants who are retiring at the age of 60 want to stay in the system, we are allowing them to stay and in fact, continue with their default investment pattern. Usually, this involves 15% in equity and the balance 85 percent in fixed-income securities. If they don't want to take more risks and are happy with their pattern, it can stay that way. We are already working on a minimum assured return scheme," he said.