Pensions ＂entered the market＂ for nearly three years, and the preservation and appreciation of value ＂kept going＂

　　Since December 2016, the pensions that the capital market has been looking forward to have been "starting" one after another, and have been entrusted to operate for nearly three years.

　　By the end of September, the governments of 18 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) had signed entrusted investment contracts for basic old-age insurance funds with the National Social Security Fund Council, with a total contract value of 966 billion yuan, of which 799.2 billion yuan had been received and started to invest.

　　This latest set of data has heated up the topic of "entering the market" for pensions again. For the performance of "entering the market" in the past three years, the reporter of "Workers Daily" has been interviewing many experts recently. They said that as an important means to maintain and increase the value of pensions, the pace of pension investment and operation has gone steady. This is normal despite short-term fluctuations due to the influence of the capital market. At the same time, there is still much room for growth in the future.

　　The income is nearly 20 billion yuan.

　　The reporter found out that at the end of 2018, the first quarter, the second quarter and the third quarter of this year, the funds received by the entrusted operation of pensions were 605 billion yuan, 624.869 billion yuan, 706.2 billion yuan and 799.2 billion yuan respectively. Compared with the working capital received in the three quarters of this year, it increased by about 19.9 billion yuan, 81.3 billion yuan and 93 billion yuan respectively.

　　Fang Lianquan, Secretary-General of the World Social Security Research Center of China Academy of Social Sciences, thinks that it means that the pension "entering the market" is steadily advancing, the scale is constantly expanding, and the pace is accelerated, which is linked to the reduction of social security fees this year. "After the fee reduction, it is necessary to increase the income of social security funds through multiple channels. Investing in and operating the basic endowment insurance fund is one of the channels, which is conducive to maintaining and increasing the value of the fund. "

　　After the implementation of the comprehensive fee reduction plan in May this year, Nie Mingjuan, director of the Department of Endowment Insurance of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, said recently that local implementation is relatively in place, and all provinces with pension insurance unit rates higher than 16% have dropped to 16%. By the end of September, the total cost reduction of enterprise pension insurance, unemployment insurance and industrial injury insurance was 272.5 billion yuan.

　　According to the Measures for the Administration of Investment in Basic Endowment Insurance Funds promulgated in August 2015, provincial governments, as the trustors of entrusted investment in pension funds, can determine the specific investment amount and entrust investment operation after reserving certain payment fees in combination with the balance of local pension funds.

　　So, what are the benefits? Judging from the 2018 annual report on the entrusted operation of the basic old-age insurance fund published by the National Social Security Fund Council, as of the end of 2018, the Social Security Fund has signed entrusted investment contracts with 17 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities), all of which are guaranteed for a period of five years, with a cumulative investment income of 18.683 billion yuan.

　　"Pension ‘ Entering the market ’ After that, the steps went more steadily. " Lu Quan, secretary-general of China Social Security Society and associate professor of Renmin University of China, told the reporter that the basic old-age insurance is a pay-as-you-go system. It is necessary to clarify whether the pension invested is a balance of the overall account or a personal account. "If it is a personal account balance, the rate of return should be able to outperform the wage growth rate and inflation rate."

　　Don’t panic, it’s fluctuation, not decline.

　　Since it was commissioned to operate, the reporter noted that in 2018, the investment return rate of the basic old-age insurance fund was 2.56%, which was 2.67% lower than that of 5.23% in 2017.

　　Why is it falling? For this question thrown by the reporter, Fang Lianquan made a revision of the statement, "It is a fluctuation, not a decline. Investment operation is a market behavior, and short-term fluctuations are inevitable. "

　　In fact, for the 2.56% earnings report card, many interviewed experts analyzed it as normal market performance.

　　"Last year, the overall operation of the capital market was not very prosperous, which had a great impact on basic pension investment. Overall, the income of 2.56% last year was still normal. " Dong Keyong, secretary-general of the 50-member Forum on China’s Pension Finance, told reporters that there is a certain period in the investment and operation of the basic pension insurance fund, and its assessment and evaluation should focus on the long-term perspective, rather than paying too much attention to the short-term rate of return.

　　Regarding the fluctuation of the rate of return, Lu Quan told reporters that this also shows that the capital market is uncertain and there are systemic risks including increasing downward pressure on the economy and fluctuations in the capital market. Therefore, in the long run, he believes that it is necessary to establish a risk hedging mechanism. "When some European and American countries invest in operating pensions, they mostly smooth the average rate of return for 20 or 30 years to avoid systemic risks."

　　It is worth noting that many people have misunderstandings about the market-oriented operation of pensions. In fact, it is not "stock trading", but a diversified investment portfolio, which fights inflation, maintains value and increases value, covering more than 20 investment products. The proportion of investment in stocks, stock funds, mixed funds and stock-based pension products shall not exceed 30% of the net asset value of the fund.

　　In response to people’s concern about whether "entering the market" will affect pension benefits, Fang Lianquan pointed out that the investment and operation of basic pensions are not directly linked to individual pension benefits, and the amount of personal pensions is based on relevant pension calculation and payment methods. If you make money, the total amount of the fund will increase, and you will be more able to guarantee payment, with more balances and stronger sustainability.

　　There is a lot of room for future increment.

　　Judging from the latest bill of pensions, from January to July this year, the income and expenditure of the basic old-age insurance fund for enterprise employees nationwide were 2.2 trillion yuan, with a balance of more than 200 billion yuan and a cumulative balance of about 5 trillion yuan. Compared with the accumulated balance, the proportion of local contracted entrusted investment is still less than 20%. In this regard, Fang Lianquan believes that it is necessary to increase efforts to promote fund collection and expand the scale of entrusted investment.

　　In the future, there is a large space for pension investment. Wang Wenling, vice chairman of the National Social Security Fund Council, pointed out, "At the end of 2018, the balance of basic old-age insurance reached more than 5 trillion yuan, and the balance in Guangdong Province was 1 trillion yuan. Now it is entrusted to invest 100 billion yuan. Beijing has a balance of 200 billion yuan. It can be seen that there is still much room for improvement in the proportion of investment funds for basic endowment insurance funds. "

　　The reporter learned that nearly 800 billion yuan of investment has come from the basic old-age insurance managed by the government, which is the "first pillar" in China’s current old-age insurance system. With the increasing pressure of pension payment brought by the aging development, the state has made continuous efforts to build the "second pillar" of the old-age insurance system, namely enterprise annuity and occupational annuity, and the "third pillar" of personal savings pension insurance and commercial pension insurance, and gradually promoted the improvement of the three-pillar old-age insurance system.

　　"Pension ‘ Entering the market ’ In fact, it is a comprehensive concept, including one, two and three pillars of investment funds. " Dong Keyong predicted that the investment funds of the first pillar in the future will still follow the principle of prudence and maintain reasonable growth. In the short term, the "market entry" funds of the second and third pillars cannot surpass the "market entry" funds of the first pillar for the time being. However, with the development and perfection of the pension system in China, the space for the pension to enter the market is actually in the "fund plate" of the second and third pillars.

　　Lu Quan agreed with this view. He believes that among the three pillars, the first pillar of basic old-age insurance should adhere to pay-as-you-go and realize mutual assistance among all workers, while the second pillar and the third pillar adopt a complete accumulation system, and this part of accumulated funds should be invested more in the capital market to maintain and increase the value on the premise of ensuring the safety of the fund.

　　In addition, on October 30th, the website of the Ministry of Finance published the Letter of the Ministry of Finance on the Proposal No.0613 (Finance and Taxation No.038) of the Second Session of the 13th CPPCC National Committee. In the reply letter, the Ministry of Finance pointed out that with the gradual maturity of the market and the gradual enrichment of the experience of individual investors, more and more annuity plans will give individual investment options.