Trust creation for pension fund arrangements requires the trust contemplated for the fund to be settled under applicable laws in force in India. The trust deed must specify the Trustee's roles and responsibilities in conformity with the prescribed regulatory requirements, thereby linking trust governance to the duties imposed on the Trustee and ensuring that foundational governance arrangements are formally recorded.

A Pension Fund must ensure that all Scheme assets are held in the safe custody of an independent Custodian. The Custodian is responsible, in accordance with applicable law and regulatory requirements, for safekeeping and settlement of Scheme assets and reporting of holdings.

Pension Funds must undergo annual financial audits by independent auditors under applicable law and submit the audit report to the Authority within thirty days of receipt. The Authority may also initiate special audits or appoint auditors for concurrent audits when considered necessary.

Every Pension Fund must take adequate steps to redress Subscriber grievances and handle them in conformity with the prescribed framework for complaint handling and grievance redressal by regulated entities in the IFSC. This obligation, governed by the relevant regulatory circular, forms part of the general responsibilities applicable to Pension Funds.

Pension Funds must submit prescribed reports on operations, financial performance, investment portfolios and compliance status within specified reporting timelines. At onboarding, Subscribers must receive the Scheme Information Document, fee details, grievance procedures, and terms for contributions, withdrawals and exit. Yearly performance reports and annual consolidated statements on transactions, investment performance and fees are required. Changes to core onboarding disclosures must be communicated to Subscribers immediately.

Pension Funds must maintain secure electronic systems for Subscriber data and transactions, ensuring data integrity, confidentiality and availability in accordance with applicable laws. Each Subscriber must be assigned a unique Pension Account number. Subscribers must receive online access to their account details, including transaction history, current valuation and investment allocation.

Pension Fund risk management requires comprehensive stress testing and scenario analysis at regular intervals to evaluate portfolio resilience under extreme conditions. Pension Funds must formulate, implement and maintain robust business continuity and disaster recovery plans, subject to regular testing to ensure uninterrupted operations as ongoing resilience and continuity controls.

Pension Funds must maintain a Board-level Risk Committee and implement a three lines of defence model. Investment management and operations own and control operational risks; compliance, legal and risk-management functions set risk appetite, monitor regulatory requirements and report deficiencies; and internal audit reports directly to the Board, providing independent assurance on governance, risk management and internal controls.

Pension Fund Boards must maintain and periodically review a documented risk appetite statement defining the overall risk accepted in Scheme management. The statement must be operationalised through specific, measurable and actionable quantitative and qualitative risk limits for the whole portfolio and its individual components.

Pension Funds must establish a risk management framework covering the key risk categories specified in the Fourth Schedule. Detailed methodologies for managing those risks must be set out in internal risk management policies and conform to the applicable requirements. Each Pension Fund must also implement a currency risk management policy, including hedging strategies where appropriate.

Every Pension Fund must establish and maintain a comprehensive enterprise-wide risk management framework approved by its Board. The framework must identify, measure, monitor and mitigate all material risks arising from and associated with Scheme management, and must be integrated into all aspects of the Pension Fund's operations.

Pension Funds must comply with concentration limits governing investment exposure to a single issuer and a single counterparty. The applicable limits are specified in Part B of the Third Schedule. These requirements form part of the investment-management and asset-allocation framework and require adherence to the Schedule-based limits for issuer and counterparty concentration.

Pension Funds must observe geographic diversification limits across India and global markets. Investments in India may reach the entire Scheme AUM. Investments outside India are capped per country at 20% of Scheme AUM, except the United States of America, subject to a 50% ceiling. Both direct and indirect investments are included in calculating exposure.

Permitted Pension Fund investments include listed public and private equities, fixed-income instruments, Alternative Investment Funds, frequently traded commodities, and cash and short-term instruments for liquidity management, together with financial products or instruments specified by the Authority. Class-specific and sub-class-specific limits apply under Part A of the Third Schedule, and each Scheme's limits must be determined accordingly and detailed in its Scheme Information Document.

Pension Fund investment strategy must align with the long-term nature of pension liabilities, with the long-term safety of the Scheme as its primary objective. Investments must be diversified across asset classes, sectors, and geographies to reduce risk. Pension Funds must maintain sufficient liquidity for regular withdrawals and payments, establish a robust risk-management framework for investment decisions, exercise safety and prudence, and act as responsible stewards of Subscriber assets.

A Pension Fund may offer a healthcare benefit option within a Scheme, allowing a Subscriber to allocate part of the pension contribution to a dedicated healthcare savings account. Account information must be included in the Scheme Information Document, and the option must comply with applicable Second Schedule requirements.

Expert valuers empanelled by Customs are to be consulted where specialist opinion is required for valuation or examination of precious and semi-precious stones. Referral for consignment valuation requires prior approval from the designated Assessment Group or Dock officer, and examination may be conducted under officer supervision. The Appraising Group must maintain a register recording Bills of Entry, valuer details, observations and remarks for each referral.

Every Subscriber may designate one or more persons to receive the accumulated corpus upon the Subscriber's death and may change an existing nomination. Nominated recipients may therefore be revised, and payment of the accumulated corpus is made to the person or persons nominated by the Subscriber upon the Subscriber's death.

Pension Fund portability permits a Subscriber to change Pension Fund no more than twice in each Financial Year. Interoperability with other pension systems may be established through a mechanism specified by the Authority, subject to bilateral agreements and applicable regulatory approvals.

Pre-retirement partial withdrawals are permitted after a five-year lock-in for specified purposes, subject to a limit based on the Subscriber's contribution; critical-illness withdrawals have no lock-in. Retirement, superannuation or vesting exits require a Systematic Withdrawal Plan after the applicable contribution period or age threshold. A minimum portion of the corpus must be used for the plan, with the balance payable as a lump sum, subject to a threshold-based full lump-sum exception. Early exits require a higher minimum allocation to the plan, while death benefits are fully payable to nominees or legal heirs.