Peru Gives Green Light to Chilean Pension-Fund Manager AFP Habitat

By Ryan Dube

LIMA, Peru--Peru's government Monday gave the green light to Chilean pension-fund manager AFP Habitat SA to begin conducting business in the country.

Peru's Superintendent of Banking, Insurance and Pension Funds issued a resolution in official gazette El Peruano authorizing AFP Habitat to start developing its "activities at the national level."

Last year, AFP Habitat won a government auction that gave it the right to manage the private pensions of about 700,000 new account holders. AFP Habitat won the auction by offering to charge the lowest commission.

The auction was part of a government plan to overhaul the private pension-fund system in order to increase coverage and attract new fund managers.

Peru's current pension-fund managers include Prima AFP SA (PRIMAC1.VL), which is controlled by Credicorp Ltd. (BAP, BAP.VL); AFP Integra SA (INTEGRC1.VL), owned by Colombia's Grupo de Inversiones Suramericana SA (GIVSY, GRUPOSURA.BO); and Profuturo AFP SA (PROFUTC1.VL), whose main shareholder is a unit of Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS, BNS.T).

In April, AFP Integra and Profuturo AFP each acquired a 50% stake in another fund, AFP Horizonte SA (HORIZC1.VL), which had been owned mainly by Holding Continental SA and Spain's Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA (BBVA, BBVA.MC).

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