| The deadline for selecting pension investors has been extended by one and a half months The Pension Fund of Russia (PFR), which failed in its campaign to send so-called “chain letters” to future pensioners, does not see a tragedy in the resulting one and a half month delay. Yesterday, the head of the Pension Fund, Mikhail Zurabov, signed an agreement with the United Depository Company (UDC, owned by Vneshtorgbank (VTB), won the Ministry of Finance’s competition to provide special depository services) and attended a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Galina Karelova on the progress of the pension reform.
A week ago, UEC won the competition for the right to control the activities of management companies (MCs) in terms of investing pension savings . Also, the depository, which is backed by VTB, will register and record transactions with securities that management companies will carry out as part of the pension reform.
Yesterday, the heads of the Pension Fund and VTB signed a document approving the UEC as a special depositary of the Pension Fund. The banker and the official, realizing the solemnity of the moment, made several loud statements. The head of VTB, Andrei Kostin, took full responsibility for the activities of the UEC “on himself personally,” and Mikhail Zurabov emphasized that the control (of the special depository over managers) “must be thorough and every second.”
For its work, the UEC will receive 0.1% of the total assets under its control, if these assets do not exceed 50 billion rubles. If this figure is higher, the commission amount will be revised. VTB, which, according to Andrey Kostin, has already invested more than 10 billion rubles in the company. (5 billion 11 million of this amount are own funds, another 5 billion are a bank guarantee), plans to invest another 30 million rubles. into the technological structure of the UEC. The head of VTB did not rule out the participation of other banks in the capital of UEC (such proposals were made to VTB, in particular, by Gazprombank and Petrocommerce), but at the same time noted that Vneshtorgbank in any case would own at least a controlling stake in UEC.
Mr. Zurabov, touching on the painful topic of sending out notifications about the state of pension savings, said that the deadline for citizens to choose a management company to invest their pensions can be extended by one and a half months: until December 1 instead of the previously approved date of October 15. The Pension Fund of Russia is one and a half months late with its mailing, which it plans to complete by the end of September. But, according to Mikhail Zurabov, there is no tragedy in the forced delay. “It’s more important to better develop the technology and launch this system without haste,” he emphasized.
At yesterday's meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Galina Karelova, a proposal to postpone the selection of managers by a month and a half was discussed. But neither the Pension Fund nor Ms. Karelova’s reception last night managed to find out the details of the meeting, which Mikhail Zurabov himself publicly announced.
However, as high-ranking government sources told the Vremya Novostey newspaper, on Tuesday, Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov instructed the Deputy Prime Minister for Social Affairs to explain to the Pension Fund “the government’s rather tough position on reform.” It is simple - no changes will be made to the developed program until the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation clarifies the situation with the mailing and tells when it intends to complete it.
The pension fund, which in two weeks will switch to printing 600-650 thousand notices per day, will apparently be met halfway. Therefore, Russians will still get their two months to choose a personal pension investor. Alexey ROZHKOV |
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