Reliance Mutual Fund is learnt to have emerged the lowest bidder for the management of pension funds for the private sector under the National Pension System (NPS).

The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) on Wednesday opened bids to select eight pension fund managers under the NPS.

Reliance Mutual Fund is said to have bid at a fund management fee of 1 basis point (0.01 percentage point). This translates to a fee of 1 paise for every ₹100.

As many as 10 bids were received by the pension regulator.

Others who had evinced interest to manage the NPS are ICICI Pension, SBI Mutual Fund, LIC Mutual fund, UTI and DSP Blackrock, Axis, Tata Mutual Fund and Kotak, sources added.

HDFC Life Insurance’s bid was rejected on technical grounds and the others have been asked to match the lowest bid made by Reliance Mutual Fund, by Monday, sources close to the development said.

Indications are that PFRDA will make a formal announcement early next week on the pension-fund managers.

The NPS-private sector kitty has swelled to about ₹2,600 crore from ₹400 crore in September 2012.

AUCTION ROUTE

The PFRDA had this time changed the process of deciding on the pension fund managers to the auction route.

This was a departure from the earlier revised process of September 2012 which allowed any technically qualified fund management entity to enter the ring so long as they are ready to work with fee cap of 0.25 percent of the assets under management.

PFRDA has not specified any floor or a cap for the fee structure, industry sources said.

NPS-private sector kitty had grown to about Rs 2,600 crore now from a level of Rs 400 crore in September 2012.

>Srivats.kr@thehindu.co.in

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