Pensions Watch: Peru AFP profits, Chile commissions

Peru's four private pension fund managers, or AFPs as they are known, reported combined net earnings of 243mn soles (US$74.2mn) for the first half of the year.

The figure compares with 235mn soles reported for the first six months of 2017, state news agency Andes reported, citing financial services watchdog SBS data.

SBS attributed the results to higher income from commissions, higher investment income and lower costs.

Habitat posted a 260% increase in net earnings to 12.1mn soles, Integra a 12.0% increase to 91.7mn, Prima a 12.8% drop to 66.0mn and ProFuturo a 0.76% drop to 74.1mn.

At the end of June, according to a SBS presentation, Integra was the biggest player by members, with 29% of the total. Second place Prima had 28%, ProFuturo 26% and Habitat 16%.

As of February, only 2.84mn of the 6.81mn active members of the system were actually contributing.

As the end of June, assets managed by the AFPs totaled 156bn soles, or 21.9% of GDP.

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Commissions charged by Chile's AFPs are the equivalent of 0.76% of AUM, according to a report by the country's industry trade group Asociación AFP.

The figure corresponds to commissions on contributions to mandatory pension savings.

The rate in Chile is lower than in the US (0.94%), Holland (0.96%), Denmark (1.01%) and Canada (1.15%), according to the report.

At the end of June, AUM by the six AFPs stood at US$203bn, up 2.5% in real terms from 12 months earlier, according to data from pension watchdog SP.