By Adedapo Adesanya
The National Pension Commission (PenCom) said that pension assets worth N47.8 billion were transferred amongst Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) as of June 2021.
In a bulletin published by PenCom, the pension industry regulator stated that it recorded a total of 12,681 Retirement Savings Account (RSA) transfer requests in the first quarter of 2021, which ended on March 31, 2021.
The commission noted that this figure more than quadrupled the figure recorded in the maiden transfer quarter which ended on December 31, 2020, with a total number of 2,799 RSAs.
“A consistent upward trend is still expected as RSA holders continue to realise the ease with which they can initiate the transfer of the RSA’s,” it said.
According to the commission, healthy competition and improved service delivery are anticipated in the pension industry with this development.
It said, “this was a result of RSA holders now having the right to determine which PFA manages their pension contributions and retirement benefits.
“The commission had ensured that the requirements for initiating RSA transfers are minimal .”
RSA Transfer System (RTS), also known as Transfer Window was launched on November 16, 2020.
RSA Transfer is the transfer of an individual’s Retirement Savings Account (RSA) from one Pension Fund Administrator (PFA) to another, processed through the RSA Transfer System (RTS). It allows an RSA holder to transfer his/her RSA once every 365 days (12 calendar months) as stipulated in Section 13 of the Pension Reform Act 2014 (PRA 2014).
The development made way for the full implementation of one of the key features of the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS), which is, the portability of RSA’s.
Dipo Olowookere