Pension funds to have US$ 23.4 billion to invest
O Estado de S. Paulo
Until the end of 2010, R$ 44.5 billion (US$ 23.4 billion) in Treasury bonds of the portfolio of the pension funds will be coming due, according to a survey of the Secretariat of the Complementary Social Security (SPC) of the Social Security Ministry. This volume of money, which corresponds to 22.7% of the portfolio of the funds, will be available for new investments - and that attracts the interest of the market. Sectors that require more investments, such as the real estate and infrastructure sectors, have already laid their eyes on it.
The entities of private social security will have to seek alternatives of higher risk in case they decide to keep the reference of 6% above inflation (the so-called actuarial goal) as minimum level of gain for its investments. The Treasury bonds were bought at a high rate of return - the greatest part between 8% and 12% a year -, but these rates are no longer available since the process of fall in the Selic (Special system for settlement and custody) rate took it to a one-digit level.
This way, the funds will have to redeem the bonds and diversify their investments. Many of them are even forbidden, in compliance with their statutes, from investing resources in assets that present a lesser return than their actuarial goal. Since last year, the SPC has been holding several meetings with the representatives of the 372 pension funds of Brazil, alerting them for the urgent need to review their investment policies. But so far the movement has been slow because a change in the actuarial goal requires the funds to charge more for the plans, either from the sponsoring company or from the members. A reduction of the goal from 6% to 5% may represent an increase of nearly 18% in the cost of the plan.
Of the 629 private social security pension funds surveyed by the SPC, 514 of them keep, in 2009, the goal of 6% of interest. Other four feature as an actuarial goal a rate of the 5.75%. For 22 plans, the goal is of 5.5%. Only 81 plans have the goal of 5%. The other eight plans have another kind of goal.