The capital losses of 2022 exceed the capital gains of 2021: Consar

The National Commission of the Retirement Savings System (Consar) reported that the disability presented in September in the administrators of retirement savings funds (Afores), was 200,653 million pesos. While between January and September they added 473,795 million pesos.

To put it in perspective, the capital losses of January-September 2022 already exceeded the capital gains registered in all of 2021 (366,030 million pesos).

The president of the Consar announced that so far in October there are black numbers “around 40,000 million pesos.”

In the nine months of the year, capital losses have been reported in six: January, February, April, June, August and September, and capital gains in the remaining three months, according to Consar.

The regulatory body of the administrators, in charge of Iván Pliego Moreno, explained that it is not unreasonable to think that this year the administrators of retirement funds end up with disabilities.

“If the trends with the existing volatility are maintained, it is not unreasonable to expect that they will end up giving (the losses)”, explained Pliego before the media.

During a seminar for journalists organized by Consar, Iván Pliego acknowledged that 2022 will be one of the worst years for the system since 2018, when the cancellation of the New Mexico International Airport (NAIM) was announced.

Pliego Moreno has insisted that the losses of the Retirement Savings System are not losses, unless transfers are made or resources are withdrawn from the Afore.

The Consar has recommended not to start the retirement process in a situation of disability.

different impact

Disabilities do not impact all workers registered in the SAR in the same way. “With the 10 Investment Companies Specialized in Retirement Funds (siefores) there are different investment trajectories”.

For example, workers who are close to retiring, in the basic pension siefore, registered a capital gain of 2.63% or 2,000 million pesos.

On the contrary, with younger workers, siefores may run more risks when investing their resources and that is why they may observe disabilities.

“Young people are not going to need the resource for another 30 or 40 years. With what is closer to retirement, you have to have fewer risks”, Pliego pointed out.

Likewise, the President of Consar has explained in various forums that the nature of the investments is variable, which is why during this year there have been losses, in the context of the economic reopening and the war in Europe.

They expect to receive 500,000 million pesos

As part of the reform to the Social Security Law (LSS) of 2020, the contributions made by employers to fund administrators will gradually increase from 6.5 to 15% of salary until 2030, with which the Afores will capture 500,0000 million pesos per year.

“The increase in employer contributions would give us (the SAR) almost half a billion pesos a year for the remainder of the decade. Even with these temporary handicaps, the trend in the medium and long term shows growth,” said Pliego Moreno.

Likewise, the Commission expects that in 2023 the changes promoted in the Retirement Savings System will materialize. In particular in the restructuring of the expenses that the Afores have.

The head of Consar revealed that until 2021, more than 40% of this resource was directed to commercial promotion, while the expense destined to the analysis of risks or investments did not even reach 10 percent.

“What we want is to redirect spending. That there is a decrease in the commercial area and that there is growth, it does not have to be too great, that it strengthens the risk analysis, investment and operational processes teams”, said the head of Consar.

Pension Advisors

In addition to the above, Pliego Moreno commented that to help redirect spending there are the Social Security Advisors, a figure that will come into force in 2023, since it professionalizes the promoters -and service agents- so that their incentive is no longer the collection of commission for the transfer of accounts.

To be a Social Security Advisor, it will be necessary for those interested to pass knowledge tests. In the first evaluation, 12,000 promoters and service agents have taken the exam, of which 6,000 have accredited the certification.

There are still two evaluations to go, October 22 and December 3.

santiago.renteria@eleconomista.mx