SSS looking to hire more fund managers for IRF

LOCAL managers for the remaining P2 billion of the Social Security System’s (SSS) investment reserve fund (IRF) may be tapped as early as end-June, the pension fund’s chief said on Wednesday.

In a press briefing at the Palace, SSS President and CEO Aurora C. Ignacio said on Wednesday that the pension fund hopes to put the remaining P2 billion of its investment portfolio up for rebidding by this month or July.

“We are looking at other investment channels at the same time looking at the funds. So we are scheduling some who would volunteer to bid for the next funds and there are a lot of bidders,” Ms. Ignacio said.

“So we hope to bid out the amount before the end of the semester or maybe next month,” she added.

The P2 billion is part of the P9-billion investment portfolio that the SSS opened for bidding last year. The agency earlier announced that it has already hired local fund managers to manage P7 billion of its IRF — which was allocated equally to three Balanced Fund mandates, three Pure Equity Fund mandates, and one Pure Fixed Income Fund mandate — for over two years in order to boost its financial standing.

The agency is allowed to appoint local or foreign fund managers to manage its IRF.

Under the Balanced Fund mandates, the agency deployed P1 billion each to Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., BPI Asset Management and Trust Corp. (BPI AMTC) and ATRAM Trust Corp.

The fund managers for the three Pure Equity Fund mandates were BPI AMTC, Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co. and Philequity Management, Inc., also with P1 billion apiece. The SSS said further that the BPI AMTC would also manage P1 billion under the Pure Fixed Income Fund mandate. — A.L. Balinbin