AFP Integra counters CenBank reports

Peru's central bank (BCR) is issuing erroneous reports suggesting an inadequate level of competition among local pension fund managers, known locally as AFPs, newspaper Gestion quoted Jaime Caceres Sayan, chairman of AFP Integra, as saying. Since the private pension system was introduced, there has been strong competition among AFPs, Caceres countered, adding that competition has reached such a point that funds are now trying to sign up the clients of rival operators. "AFPs not only compete with other AFPs, but also with the national pension fund system, which continues to acquire affiliates," he added. Caceres said he was open to the central bank's initiative to encourage other financial agents to operate an AFP, if it led to greater competition. He raised doubts whether the BCR was suitably qualified to prepare a report on the private pension fund system in place of the local insurance regulator SBS. "It could be that BCR wants to take the powers from another institution that is obviously charged to supervise the AFP system," he said.