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Friday Sep 20, 2024
Thursday, 21 August 2014 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Even though, the ageing population has reached alarming levels in Sri Lanka, the pension plan will benefit the people to face their retirement with courage. Considering that the larger permanent employees benefit from interest income from investments or a lump-sum obtained from Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and Employees Trust Fund (ETF) emoluments, it is noteworthy to mention that the self-employed people are not members of any defined Retirement-Benefit plan what so ever.
Another issue of concern is with the reducing trend of interest rates, neither the monthly pension income nor the monthly interest gained from compulsory savings could be considered adequate to maintain a decent standard of living after employees retire.
Faced with such a complex dilemma, the HDFC Bank has designed this customer-centric financial solution to suite the dynamic market conditions. As with other existing investment plans in the bank’s product portfolio, here too, the objective has been with a focus on the highest customer return in creating wealth.
This time, HDFC Bank has identified an opportunity for a unique financial product to act as a long term pension fund. The minimum Initial Investment can begin with Rs. 500 with flexible amounts of investments added thereafter. Subsequent investments after the initial deposit could be even as small as Rs. 100.
HDFC Vishrama Rekawarana would be in a position to offer loans to its investors, on accumulation of funds. Besides, it also carries with it, the ability of being a customised financial instrument in catering to the varied needs of identified social clusters such as the agricultural farming community, fisheries community, etc.
Due to the ability of being designed to cater to the specific community based needs, through its countrywide branch network, HDFC Bank intends promoting this scheme with minor adaptations to suit the needs of different institutions with specified corporate solutions and the specific needs of identified village communities. Investments are geared to pay interest returns that are geared to equal 75% of the lowest interest charged for housing loans.
HDFC Chairperson Siromi Wickramasinghe described Vishrama Rekawarana scheme as a revolutionary investment plan which apart from stable and high returns, also facilitates the account holder to transfer the fund to a nominee at maturity.
Further she states that this mechanism would always yield ‘above-the-market’ interest earnings to Vishrama Rekawarana investors. It would always offer interest above the Treasury bill rates and fixed deposits rates prevalent in the market at any given time. The most important feature here is that even a regular small investment like Rs. 100 made periodically would benefit the investor with the highest interest return.
HDFC CEO/GM Nimal Mamaduwa said that this scheme is a unique retirement fund, which is ranked as a high security investment since its value would be secured against collateral. Further he added that the Vishrama Rekawarana is an ethical fund which can be considered a future investment index with high growth potential since it has been designed to suit the future changes expected in social demographics.
