EPFO may appoint HSBC AMC, UTI AMC, SBI MF as fund managers for 3-yr term

Retirement fund manager EPFO is likely to appoint next week at its trustees' meet asset management firms HSBC AMC, UTI AMC and SBI Mutual Fund as its fund managers for a three-year term.

The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation's (EPFO) advisory body Finance, Audit and Investment Committee (FAIC) has finalised and recommended the names of three asset management firms -- HSBC AMC, UTI AMC and SBI Mutual Fund for appointment as fund mangers of the retirement fund of the body for a three-year term beginning October 1, 2019, a source said.

Now the proposal finalised by the FAIC would be placed before the EPFO's apex decision-making body Central Board of Trustees (CBT) headed by Labour Minister on August 21, 2019 for final approval, the source said.

The appointment of the fund managers for another term of three years has been pending with the EPFO since April last year. The body had appointed SBI, ICICI Securities Primary Dealership, Reliance Capital and HSBC AMC for a three-year term, starting April 1, 2015.

Thereafter, the EPFO gave many extensions to the five fund managers. Now the extended term of the five fund mangers would expire on September 30, 2019.

Earlier this year, the EPFO had made it clear that the SBI as a bank could not continue as the fund manger of the body. Therefore SBI's asset management firm SBI Mutual Fund had submitted bids in this round of bidding for appointment as fund manager.

The source said that the names of three asset management firms have been finalised by the FAIC on the basis of their performance in the past years.

The EPFO had appointed multiple fund managers for the first time in July 2008, for earning better rate of return on deposits for its subscribers. Before that, SBI was the sole fund manager for the retirement fund body since its inception in 1952.