India’s pension regulator is considering widening investment options for pension funds by allowing them to invest in gold and silver exchange-traded funds, venture capital funds, private credit and alternative investment funds, S. Ramann, head of the regulator, says in an interview with Reuters news agency.
He noted that currently, pension schemes mostly invest in debt and equity.
“It is imperative that public policy pushes towards making sure people get a good return from market instruments such that their own individual saving corpus becomes reasonably adequate,” Ramann, chairperson of the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA), is quoted as saying in the interview published on September 29.
The private pension fund industry oversees 15.78 trillion Indian rupees (US$178.77 billion) of assets, catering to 80 million subscribers. PFRDA aims to expand the subscriber base to nearly 300 million by 2030.
Spokespersons for the regulator did not immediately respond to questions from Asia Asset Management.
