Rodrigo Vergara, chairman of the board of Santander Chile and former president of the Banco Central de Chile (Chile's central bank), said he was surprised by "the enormous risk" that the AFPs (Administradoras de Fondos de Pensiones, Chile's private pension fund managers) took on in managing retirement savings, according to BioBioChile.
"It has to be said that I am surprised by the enormous risk that was being taken, and also a bit surprised by this idea of saying that this is the fault of regulation. Look, we are all grown-ups", Vergara said. With that remark he pointed to the responsibility of the fund managers themselves and rejected the notion that the Superintendencia de Pensiones, the body that oversees them, should be the first to answer for the losses.
His words carry particular weight. According to the same outlet, the AFPs hold about 10% of the shares of the bank he chairs. In other words, the critic heads a company in which the fund managers are significant shareholders.
The statement comes as the Asociación de AFP, the industry group representing the fund managers, has not provided new updates following the Superintendencia's ruling. The source does not detail the content of that ruling or the exact losses of each fund, including Fund E, the most conservative in the system.
One of the questions being raised is whether the AFPs' investment teams considered negative scenarios. BioBioChile mentions among those factors a war, turbulence in the bond market, inflation and the decisions of US President Donald Trump. Put simply: if your money is in the most cautious fund, you expect it to withstand precisely those shocks.
The debate has also moved to the Congreso (Chile's national legislature), with motions, bills and official requests. Some welcome the discussion broadening from investment limits, which set the assets that can be invested in, to risk limits, which measure how much a portfolio can lose.
The president of the Confederación de la Producción y del Comercio (CPC), Susana Jiménez, criticized the tone of the discussion. "Going out to demand heads or to demand compensation enters into a very political and, indeed, very populist debate", she said. She added that many voices offering opinions "do not really know how the system works".
For Jiménez, that is dangerous because it forgets that the outlook on pensions is long-term, a position in line with what the Asociación de AFP had previously stated.
Looking ahead, the system will move from the current five funds, A through E, to 10 generational funds, which group members according to their age. With that change, transfers of savings between funds will be eliminated.