National Pension System

The National Pension System (NPS) is a defined-contribution voluntary pension scheme launched and promoted by the Government of India for all its citizens. Under this scheme, an individual regularly contributes an amount during pre-retirement years to draw a pension and secure post- retirement life.

The National Pension System (NPS) is a pension scheme launched and promoted by the Govt. of India. The scheme allows citizens to undertake retirement planning by investing periodically during their working life and building a corpus for a financially secured retired life. It is a market-linked defined contribution pension scheme.

NPS is regulated by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA). The scheme is mandatory for Central Government employees (except armed forces) who have joined service and on or after 01 Jan 2004 and for employees of those State Governments who have adopted NPS .

Indian citizens (including NRIs and OCIs) aged between18 and 70 years can open an NPS Account. Corporates (private and public sector) both in the private and public sectors, can introduce NPS as an employee retirement benefit scheme.

NPS Trust is the registered owner of all assets under the NPS architecture and its role is to take care of the assets under NPS in the best interest of the subscribers. Pension Funds purchase the securities on behalf of NPS Trust. However, subscribers are the beneficial owners of the NPS assets.

PFMs are responsible for investing and managing NPS contributions received from subscribers. SBI Pension Funds is the largest and the oldest pension fund under NPS, operating since April 2008, and managing all schemes under NPS and also Atal Pension Yojana (APY).

SBI Pension Funds Private Limited (SBIPFPL) is India’s largest pension fund management company with Assets Under Management (AUM) of around ₹ 5.46 lakh crore with a market share of ~35% as on 31st July 2025.

Incorporated in December 2007, the company became one of the first Pension Fund Managers in the country. We began operations in April 2008 handling the NPS funds of the Central Government employees followed by those of State Governments, PSUs, CPSEs, private corporate, individual citizens, etc. We are the one of the two Pension Funds to manage all the schemes introduced under the NPS since inception. We also manage funds under Govt. of India's Atal Pension Yojana (APY).

The company also obtained a marketing licence (PoP Licence) in February 2019 after the same was made eligible to existing Fund Managers.

The company is sponsored by State Bank of India (80% shareholding) and SBI Mutual Fund (SBI Funds Management Limited) (20 % shareholding).