Country’s pension fund managers ‘rip off’ workers

Santo Domingo.- Greater Santo Domingo’s industries grouped in the AEIH on Sunday called the 167% return obtained by Dominican Republic’s pension fund managers (AFP) an " ignominy with a character of a rip off."

Industries president Victor Castro based the figure on recent data from the Pension Superintendence (SIPEN), and warned that the after-taxes profit of RD$2.6 billion by the end of September, is well above the capital paid by those agencies, of RD$1.6 billion.

He said no legal business in the country can boast such profit margin, which “a veritable usury” compared with the real return of the workers’ funds in the AFP. "This is simply a rip-off and it’s like employees and employers work to be tired and maintain a bum, which in this case are the pension fund managers, which receives all the privileges without making efforts,"

Castro said it’s imperative to reduce at once the 0.50% commission from salaries which the AFPs charge monthly from the individual capitalization accounts and the “excessive” annual 0.25% complementary fee. "This means that the workers’ real wages are shrunk because while the AFPs pocket that prodigious amount of money, workers don’t receive services to compensate in exchange."

In a statement, the business leader said Congress shouldn’t delay in reducing the fees charged by the AFP, which has this year losses for workers around RD$1.3 billion.

The AEIH president called on workers, employers, lawmakers and the media to form a front to “avert being swindled by those people.”