The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) has revealed a request for proposal for the hiring of a marketing consultant to help within the implementation of a Minimum Assured Return Scheme (MARS) underneath the National Pension System (NPS). PFRDA states that it seeks proposals/bids from consultants (i) in consultation with stakeholders to create a Minimum Guaranteed Return Scheme (MARS) that can be provided by the Pension Fund to existing and potential customers. (a) with the essential design or (b) with restricted modifications upon approval by the Authority (ii) setup a process to guage and approve primary scheme design modifications by Pension Funds and supervise MARS (iii) prescribe charges, solvency necessities, threat administration and reporting mechanism for Pension Funds in respect of MARS.
Entities are invited to submit their proposals/bids for the above project (i) Technical Proposal and (ii) Commercial Proposal. According to PFRDA, proposals obtained in response to this RFP can be evaluated by way of the situations laid out herein and the Applicant/Consultant which is thus chosen can be required to supply skilled, goal, and neutral service always, maintain the PFRDA pursuits paramount, with no consideration for future work, and strictly keep away from conflicts with different assignments or their very own company pursuits.
Scope of labor
The PFRDA Act mandates that customers under the NPS must have the option of a scheme that gives them a minimum guaranteed return and that such a scheme can be provided by a pension fund registered with the authority. The scope of labor for the Consultant can be to:-
3.1 Formulate/Design the minimal assured return scheme (MARS) with the next parameters that may be provided to the present and potential subscribers by Pension Funds with (a) the essential design or (b) restricted modifications within the primary design by Pension Funds with approval of the Authority:-
(i) Guarantee can be Capital plus further advantages or Interest Rate Guarantee.
(ii) Guarantee can be relevant on every contribution individually. The funds obtained by means of change from different schemes to be thought of as recent contributions.
(iii) Guarantee could also be relevant solely to the longer term contributions (prospectively).
(iv) All contributions can be eligible for the assure topic to sure financial limits (with periodicity) as could also be prescribed.
(v) Guarantee can be based mostly on Nominal return with preferences for Interest Rate assure
(vi) Combinations of mounted or floating charges could also be labored out for MARS and each the choices underneath this parameter could also be stored open for evaluations
(vii) Lock-in can be relevant on every contribution and utilized based mostly on interval since that contribution. For offering flexibility, a number of lock-in interval choices (or have staggered assure intervals) could also be thought of and for every lock-in interval the assure provided can be completely different. However, such choices/staggering shall not be greater than 2-3.
(viii) Withdrawals can be instantly linked to lock-in interval. The subscriber might have choice to withdraw or to remain invested after the lock-in interval, nevertheless, there will not be any assure utilized on the funding after lock-in. To receive additional reassurance after the lock-in interval expires, customers will need to re-lock the latest.
(ix) Minimum and most financial limits on contributions that may be made by subscribers to be prescribed. The contributions could also be made versatile throughout the prescribed limits
(x) Considering the market-to-market valuation of scheme assets under Mars, it may be wise to allow the PF to incur their charges as a proportion of the corpus they conduct.
3.2 Based on MARS design prescribed, present suggestions for:-
(i) Fees/pricing of assure by Pension Funds to be charged to subscribers (viz. vary with minimal and most restrict, higher ceiling, flooring & cap and many others.)
(ii) Capital and Solvency necessities of Pension Funds for offering assure.
(iii) Guidelines for funding (permissible funding/hedging devices), valuation, prudential norms, and scheme accounting.
(iv) Risk administration by the Pension Fund in the case of Mars.
3.3 Provide the next to the Authority for its personal utilization:-
(i) Model/process to guage and approve MARS choices by Pension Funds with primary design or with modifications that will be filed with the Authority for searching for approval earlier than being provided to subscribers/public at giant.
(ii) Mechanism to be adopted by the Authority for supervising solvency, capital necessities, asset-liability administration and threat administration of Pension Funds in respect of MARS.
(iii) Formats of Reporting/MIS/Actuarial Reports to be submitted by Pension Funds to the Authority for monitoring and supervision of MARS in the most effective curiosity of subscribers.
(iv) Disclosure of Mars to customers and the general public through the Pension Fund.
3.4 Any different difficulty which may be related within the above context.
3.5 The Consultant can be required to undertake discussions with stakeholders or could also be required to work together with a professional/group/committee constituted by the Authority whereas designing or finalizing the MARS design construction.
Non- Refundable Application Fee
The bidder shall be required to deposit a non-refundable software price of Rs. 20,000/- (Rupees Twenty Thousand solely) within the type of Demand Draft/Pay Order from any scheduled business financial institution favoring Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority and payable at New Delhi or connect proof for remittance of software charges by means of digital transfers on to PFRDA Bank account together with the bid/proposal in a separate sealed envelope. Bid/Proposal will not be accepted and will not be rejected outright with the price of essential non-refundable software.
Earnest Money Deposit (EMD) – Bid Security Amount
a) Bidder must present an EMD/Bid safety of Rs 50,000/- (Rupees Fifty thousand solely) by the use of both a requirement draft/pay order issued in favour of Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority, payable at New Delhi or by making digital cost by means of NEFT/RTGS to PFRDA Bank account.
b) In the occasion of non-submission of the EMD/bid-security cash of Rs 50,000/-, the bid/proposal can be summarily rejected.
c) No curiosity can be payable on the EMD/Bid Security quantity.
d) The EMD/bid safety quantity can be forfeited if upon being declared profitable the Bidder refuses to simply accept work order or having accepted the work order, fails to hold out its obligations talked about therein.
e) The EMD/Bid Security quantity can be refunded to the unsuccessful bidders solely after completion of your complete RFP course of.
f) The EMD/Bid safety quantity of the profitable bidder can be refunded upon submission of Performance Bank Guarantee (PBG).