EPFO resumes investment in scam-hit LIC Housing Finance

New Delhi, Feb 15 (PTI) Retirement fund manager EPFO''strustees today approved a proposal to resume investment in thescam-hit LIC Housing Finance, a subsidiary of the country''slargest insurance company Life Insurance Corporation.

The decision to resume investment in the LIC HousingFinance was taken at the meeting of the Central Board ofTrustees (CBT), the apex decision-making body of theEmployees'' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO).

The CBT had suspended investment in housing financecompany following disclosure of the bribe-for-loans scam inNovember 2010 in which top officials of the LIC HousingFinance were allegedly involved.

"Amount invested in LIC Housing Finance is notmuch...approved investment is only about Rs 800 crore," CBTmember and Secretary All India Trade Union Congress D LSachdev told reporters after the CBT meeting.

The EPFO had invested Rs 454 crore in the bonds ofLIC Housing Finance Company. The fund manager''s prevailinginvestment norms allow for investment of up to Rs 846 crore inthe company.

The EPFO''s advisory body, the Finance and InvestmentCommittee (FIC), took up the issue in its meeting on January28 and recommended resumption of investment in LIC HousingFinance.

LIC Housing Finance went through a bad phase after CBIin November arrested its CEO Ramachandran Nair and seven othersenior bankers for allegedly colluding with real estate firmsto sanction large-scale corporate loans, overriding themandatory due diligence involved in such approvals, besidesother irregularities.