ICICI Bank keen on pension funds foray

ICICI Bank today said it was keen on foraying into pension funds but was awaiting the passage of the long-pending Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) bill.

"We are keen to enter the pension funds business and have already prepared a road-map for it. We are waiting for clarity on the regulatory environment," Kalpana Morparia, joint managing director, ICICI Bank told PTI.

Though the central government and 16 other states' employees joining the service during the last two-three years have opted for the new pension scheme, pension funds have not come into being due to the non-passage of the PFRDA bill, being opposed by key UPA ally, the Left parties.

"We are already offering pension schemes in our life insurance business as an individual product," Morparia said.

The government has made it clear that there will not be many pension funds but initially it is proposed to have around 6-8 funds of which at least one would be in the public sector.

Life Insurance Corporation, State Bank of India and Unit Trust of India are among the front-runners for the public sector pension fund.

Morparia said the structure of pension fund business would be decided only after the regulatory regime is clear.

"We can either set up a separate company for the business or run it as an independent division of our existing insurance company, depending upon regulatory requirements," she said.