Morales signs pension nationalization into law

Bolivian President Evo Morales has signed into law a bill that nationalizes the country's pension system. While they have complained loudly about the new measures, the country's private sector businesses say they will follow the law. Among other provisions that business owners have complained about, the law requires them to pay the equivalent of 3% of an employee's salary to cover a "solidarity" fund. "We've accepted paying the 3%, but we think that we really had every right to have participated more in an analysis that would have enriched the pensions law," La Paz private-sector business federation Feplp president Enrique García said, according to a report in local newspaper Los Tiempos. The law will take the funds managed by two private sector pension fund managers - known as AFPs - owned by Spain's BBVA (NYSE: BBVA) and Switzerland's Zurich and place them under the management of a government-held company.