AUM under NPS could grow to ₹100 lakh cr by 2040 from the current ₹18 lakh cr, says PFRDA Chief Ramann

Given that the economy is growing, the Assets Under Management (AUM) under the National Pension System (NPS) could grow to ₹100 lakh crore by 2040 from the current ₹18 lakh crore, according to S Ramann, Chairman, Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority.

“Our thinking at the PFRDA, given the political economy and the legal framework of long-term savings, is to translate our aspirations into numbers,” he said at a leadership event on “Tatkal NPS: Advancing Digital Pension Inclusion”.

Ramann opined that in a growing economy, PFRDA estimates that by 2040, the NPS AUM will probably be ₹100 lakh crore.

While this amount seems large, given the healthy growth of the economy, he assessed that it is not significantly large. PFRDA aims to make that number grow much faster than organic growth would otherwise bring us.

“We have taken the Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) architecture that is already in place. The banking system will end up becoming the most trusted entity servicing citizens—be it for a loan or for moving and holding money. It is important for us to align NPS growth with this bank-driven architecture.

“If we have 80 crore people using UPI, these users can conduct their financial planning and savings through their mobile phones. We felt we had to come up with something where banks spend no money—there is zero cost to a bank to acquire a customer. The trigger is with the UPI provider through their dedicated apps, where one of the largest UPI providers has 20 crore monthly active users,” the PFRDA chief said.

Ramann observed that if a UPI provider triggers the customer, the customer can initiate an NPS account with an initial deposit of ₹250. Through PFRDA’s collaboration with the NPCI team, a platform/bridge has been created connecting the UPI provider and the bank using existing mobile number and date of birth mappings. So, bankers just sit back and watch the accounts flow in.