BoI, UTI MF tie up for 'Micro-pension' to low income groups

New Delhi, Aug 3 (UNI) Bank of India and UTI Mutual Fund (UTI MF) today announced a tie-up, under which members up to the age of 55 years of Self Help Groups (SHGs) having accounts with Bank of India, can contribute a minimum Rs 100 every month to the fund, thereby receiving periodical pension after the age of 58 years.

Under the Micro-Finance initiative, members of SHGs will be given an investment opportunity through the UTI-Retirement Benefit Pension Fund, enabling them to receive pension in the form of periodical income/cashflow after they reach the age of 58 years.

The initiative, facilitated by the Bank of India and UTI MF aims to provide the much needed social security cover for the low-income group during their old age.

Self Help Group is a voluntary association of low income groups mostly from the same socio-economic background, who come together for the purpose of solving their common problem through mutual help.

The group promotes savings amongst its members.

The Group thus provides a saving mechanism suitable to the needs of the member. The savings will be tapped by Bank of India and will be channelised in UTI Retirement Benefit Pension Fund.

''This micro-pension initiative aims to provide an old age social security cover- a periodical stream of income generated out of small savings invested by creating group saving synergies and by bringing in best benefits of investments in capital markets by bringing in expertise of seasoned fund managers of UTI MF. Bank of India shall be distributing this product to low income groups through Self Help Groups,'' Bank of India CMD M Balachandran said.

Bank of India has over 2,600 branches, including 24 overseas offices including in London, New York, Paris, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore.

The bank has over 23 million customer accounts and a business mix of over Rs 1,60,000 crore.

It has over 49,000 SHGs consisting of more than 4 lakh customers, of which over 36,000 SHGs are women beneficiaries.

The Bank has a large concentration of SHG in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.

UTI-Retirement Benefit Pension Fund is an open-end tax saving-cum-pension fund.

The scheme has been notified by Central Government, and invests minimum 60 per cent and maximum 100 per cent in debt and balance in equity.

UNI RA CS VV1628