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Controversy has generated the complaint he made Gino Lorenzini from Felices y Forrados (FyF), regarding a supposed illegal triangulation that involves the AFP Habitat, in an accusation where he targeted the family of the President Sebastián Piñera.
After Sernac announced an investigation against FyF for misleading advertising, Lorenzini accused Habitat of investing the pension funds in the market fund manager Asset Management Currency, which in the same way invested in Real Estate Construction (ILC), which in turn is the controlling company of Habitat, which is expressly prohibited by law.
Lorenzini’s complaint
In addition to the complaint that involves Moneda and ILC, there are similar operations that the companies would carry out Genesis, linked to Jose Piñera, Y Volcom AGF, linked to the son of the president, Sebastián Piñera Morel.
The question, in addition, is that the companies in blind trust of President Piñera – BTG PActual, Credicorp Capital and Moneda Asset – have shares in AFP Habitat.
However, the Superintendency of Pensions ruled on this matter in 2019, as confirmed by the Radio Bío Bío Research Unit.
On that occasion, the entity reported that “it was determined that the investments of AFP Habitat SA through the investment manager Moneda Asset, comply with current regulations.”
Next, it highlights that “this situation was investigated in a timely manner last year, in compliance with the provisions and powers that the legislation confers on it.”
“After the investigation and analysis of the information collected, the Superintendency of Pensions concluded that its auditee, AFP Habitat, did not incur in an infringement of current investment legislation,” he concluded.
How the AFP business works
To understand the complaint, it is necessary to explain how the business of Pension Fund Insurers.
As explained by the Professor Roberto Saavedra, economist and academic from the Business School of the Universidad Mayor, workers must compulsorily contribute 10% of their salaries to the AFPs to generate savings that they can receive once they retire.
Said savings are taken by the Pension Fund Insurers to be invested in order to generate profitability, for which they charge a commission that on average is around 1.27% on average.
The system devised by José Piñera, since its creation in 1981 has been adding more than 800 new regulations. Among them is the creation of General Fund Administrators (AGF), Public limited companies whose main function is to search the market for the highest possible profitability of AFP funds, such as Moneda Asset Management, which in turn invests in ILC, company that currently controls AFP Habitat jointly with Prudential Financial Inc., each owning 40.3%.
These AGFs must pay a commission when they decide to use the services of a third party, as in this case ILC, which is also dedicated to seeking more returns, which is what ultimately moves the entire system.
The proven
Let us remember that the Superintendency assured in its last statement that “indirect investment is considered to be that of a significant nature that simultaneously meets the following two requirements: (i) that it is greater than 0.5% of the total value of the assets of the respective investment vehicle ; and, (ii) that the sum of the investments is higher than 0.1% of the value of the pension fund managed by the AFP ”.
When analyzing the data, the SP concluded that the investment that AFP Habitat maintained in each of the pension funds it manages, through two investment funds that had ILC as their underlying asset (the Moneda Small CAP Latin America Investment Fund and Pionero Investment Fund), “did not exceed 0.1% of each of the pension funds managed by the administrator, since this amounted to only between 0.01% and 0.02% depending on the type of pension fund.”
“This is as if I as AFP go and through a second, I invest in myself AFP, that is what is questioning. The law is very subtle and the same Congress or the Superintendency will have to settle what is the intention of the law, because there is a spirit of the law, and that spirit has to intersect with the behavior of the market, “he explained.
“If the market in a minute did not foresee that this situation could occur, it has to be regulated with some transitory article that regulates it, in the event that this is demonstrated,” he explained.
In any case, the expert ensures that it is a highly regulated system, which defines the percentages where you can invest in the local market or abroad, as well as if it is fixed or variable income.
However, as recognized by Roberto Saavedra, “when there are spaces that have not been regulated by the second or third commission agents, within this search for agents who are in charge of seeking returns, there could be gaps in the legislation.”
In this sense, the expert considered that “the law has to be expanded, not only in terms of intentions, but also some more specific instructions for the application of the law, because in these areas the law will always slow down, because the markets they are more dynamic and even more so in international finance ”.
“Someone can be criticized for investing in the Cayman Islands for example, however, if it is not regulated, they do not have to criticize it, because finally the person is free to do so, because there is no regulation that prevents it,” he exemplified .
“If that situation has been regulated, it can be audited there. But for that, legislators have to dedicate themselves to legislating with technical criteria ”, concluded the economist from the Universidad Mayor.
The uncertain
The controversy is far from over, especially after the opposition deputies, Renato Garín and Cosme Mellado, they asked for an investigative commission in the Lower House.
The idea needs 62 signatures, and according to Garín, there are already several opposition parliamentarians who have given their support.
In parallel, the deputy of Democratic Revolution (RD), Pablo Vidal Rojas, requested a special session of the Chamber to analyze the controversy, for which they need 51 signatures.
While the signatures are being gathered, through his Twitter account, Congressman Garín invited his peers to join his initiative, assuring that “the inaction of the Superintendencies should be investigated in view of the fact that Volcom, owned by Piñera Morel, receives 94 times the legal limit for the AFPs to invest in this type of funds ”.
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