Mumbai: State-owned Life Insurance Corp of India (LIC) has created a separate company, which is named as ‘LIC Pension Fund Ltd’ to manage pension funds.

LIC Pension Fund Ltd is the initial company incorporated in India to handle pension funds under the New Pension System (NPS).

The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) picked out LIC to direct pension funds of about half a million government staff recruited since January 2004.

The only condition for selection was that LIC had to build a separate company to manage these funds. The PFRDA had also chosen SBI and UTI Asset Management Company to be the sponsors of pension funds under NPS.

Legislation is pending in parliament for authorization, which will permit foreign firms to own a maximum 26% in the pension fund management company.