Under changes to the Retirement Funds Act, local pension funds have until December 2027 to invest a minimum of 50% of their assets domestically, a figure that as at August translated to P16.3 billion being repatriated from offshore. Known formally as the Pension Fund Rule 2 or PFR 2, the Non-Bank Financial Institutions Regulatory Authority (NBFIRA) statute previously required pension funds to invest at least 30% of their assets locally.
BoB’s financial markets department director, Lesego Moseki, told BusinessWeek that the repatriation of pension funds would lead to increased liquidity in the local market, helping ease the yields paid out by the central bank on its capital market activities.