Billions of savings could go to support government programs

The Ministry of Finance has figured out how to expand the investment declaration for pension fund managers. This money will make it possible to invest in shares of first-class borrowers not included in the top-level quotation list, carry out repo transactions on them, and also finance state-owned companies and state corporations with these funds. Until now, such structures have not laid claim to the funds of future retirees.

The Ministry of Finance published draft amendments to government regulations regulating the investment of pension savings and the placement of pension reserves on Friday on the official website. Of all the proposed innovations, experts found the most interesting was the removal of restrictions on investment of pension savings and reserves by management companies (MCs) and non-state pension funds (NPFs) in bonds of non-profit organizations. We are talking about state corporations and state-owned companies, says the explanatory note to the document.

Considering that the profitability of such investments is unlikely to be high, this instrument, according to market participants, will be in demand by those management companies and non-state pension funds that are affiliated with government agencies. The latter, according to expert estimates, can count on flows of pension savings alone in the amount of 75-100 billion rubles. If investments in the most conservative instrument - OFZs - are on average at the market level of 15% of the portfolio, and in riskier and more profitable corporate bonds - at the level of 30-60% of the portfolio, then the share of investments in bonds that are between them in terms of profitability and riskiness state-owned companies and state corporations may amount to approximately 15-20% of the total volume of pension savings transferred to non-state pension funds (at the end of the first quarter - 505 billion rubles).

Market participants reacted differently to this proposal. “Bonds of state-owned companies are a good investment. The money will go to the benefit of the country, they will have long-term guarantees,” says Galina Morozova, director of the Sberbank Non-State Pension Fund. “Pension savings funds are the only real money in the economy and a good source of financing for some government programs,” says Olga Bulantseva, executive director of the NPF Promagrofond. There is also the opposite point of view. “This amendment is only a legal formalization of the opportunity to place pension money in government programs, and not a step in the development of the management market,” notes Andrey Dyachenko, portfolio manager of Alfa Capital Management Company. “It is unlikely that this will give anything to management companies; rather, specific officials from state corporations are lobbying their interests here,” says Vladimir Solodukhin, managing director of BrokerCreditService Management Company.

Other innovations contained in the Ministry of Finance document, according to experts, look more market-oriented. Using funds from pension savings, it is proposed to allow the purchase of shares of companies during their initial placement on the stock exchange, enter into repo transactions, and purchase shares of issuers with high credit quality, but not included in the top-level quotation list. “The latter is a very correct decision, because the securities of the same Gazprom are not included in the A1 list, although it is clear to everyone that these are very reliable securities,” says Mr. Dyachenko. “This will expand our toolkit and allow us to diversify our portfolio assets,” says Ms. Morozova. However, some of the investment objects proposed by the Ministry of Finance - for example, the use of pension savings in repo transactions - were considered by market participants to be quite risky. “Repo transactions are predominantly short-term and often speculative in nature; they are not the best tool for long-term money transactions,” says Arkady Nedbay, executive director of NPF Stayer.

Be that as it may, all these amendments make sense only if the funded component of the pension is preserved, market participants agree. “If the pension savings system continues, we will be interested in any new instrument. If we return to distribution, then the investment opportunities that we already have will be sufficient,” summarizes First Deputy General Director of Agana Management Company Dmitry Retunskikh.

Maria Yakovleva, Dmitry Ladygin

Pensions are given importance