PFRDA's AUM crosses Rs 5 lakh crore mark

New Delhi: The total assets under management of the National Pension System and Atal Pension Yojana have crossed Rs 5 lakh crore, regulator PFRDA said on Thursday.

Besides, Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority hopes to hit a target of Rs 6 lakh crore AUM by the end of this fiscal. As on October 10, 2020, the total number of subscribers under the NPS and APY has crossed 3.76 crore, and the asset under management (AUM) has grown to Rs 5,05,424 crore, the pension fund regulator said in a virtual press conference.

"Achieving Rs 5 lakh crore AUM is a major achievement which reflects the subscribers have faith in PFRDA and NPS. We have enabled a robust and unique architecture with efficient systems and professional fund managers, delivering market-based returns enabling our subscriber to accumulate their retirement corpus," PFRDA Chairman Supratim Bandyopadhyay said.

The subscriber's contributions under the National Pension System (NPS) and Atal Pension Yojana (APY) have jointly contributed to this landmark figure, over a period of 12 years, PFRDA said.

The growth in NPS subscribers has also been remarkable over the years with 70.40 lakh employees joining the scheme from the government sector and 24.24 lakh from the non-government sector.

During this pandemic, a growing realisation of both corporates and individuals has emerged that retirement planning is not a mere saving or tax benefit choice, witnessed by NPS enrolment - growing almost 14 per cent during this challenging period, he said.

On the level of AUM expected by the end of the current fiscal, Bandyopadhyay said: "We believe, we will be very close to Rs 6 lakh crore AUM (by year-end). But nobody can tell about the market forces...But it (AUM) will be very close to Rs 6 lakh crore, if not Rs 6 lakh crore".

He also said that PFRDA is seeing continuous onboarding of new subscribers even during the current pandemic situation.

Besides, the agency has allowed many sectors to join under its pension fold and operational guidelines have been eased to ensure more people can participate.