Pension fund assets grow 8% in 12 months through April

Mexico's pension fund managers (Afores) reported assets under management of 1.01tn pesos (US$73.3bn) at the end of April, an 8.5% real-term rise on the same time in 2008, according to the latest statistics from pension watchdog Consar. Pension assets at end-April were up 3.5% from end-March. Assets held by private Afores amounted to 955bn pesos at end-April. At end-2007, pension fund industry association Amafore estimated assets under management held by Afores excluding assets held by state-run Afore Pensionissste, would amount to 1tn pesos at the end of 2008. Due to high levels of volatility in financial markets, the figure has still not been achieved. Afores manage five types of mandatory retirement funds for workers: Siefore Básica 1 (SB1) tailored for those aged 56 or older; Siefore Básica 2 (SB2) designed for ages 46-55; Siefore Básica 3 (SB3) for ages 37-45; Siefore Básica 4 (SB4) for ages 27-36; and Siefore Básica 5 (SB5) for up to age 26. As of end-April, the country's SB1s reported 99.8bn pesos in assets under management, SB2s 235bn pesos, SB3s 296bn pesos, SB4s 299bn pesos and SB5s 73.3bn pesos.