DragonFi pledges P10M for Pera participants

Tycoon Edgar Sia II has pledged P10 million to help jump-start the retirement fund of Filipinos after his company’s stock brokerage venture became the first to be accredited as an administrator of retirement savings programs.

According to DragonFi Securities Inc., this can support around 2,000 Filipinos aged 18 to 35.

Under the broker’s Matching Grant Fund program, each participant who contributes their first P5,000 to their Personal Equity and Retirement Account (Pera) will get an additional P5,000 in matching funds.

This is expected to boost the total number of Pera accounts in the country by 35 percent, DragonFi said in a statement on Tuesday.

Future millionaires

“I hope that through the Pera program and this initial grant, we’re not only paving the way for 2,000 Filipinos to become future millionaires but also igniting a movement that will empower millions of young Filipinos to achieve financial independence within our lifetimes,” Sia said.

For its part, DragonFi will launch its Pera platform in the second half of 2025.

“With strong support from regulators, businesses and individual investors, Pera has the potential to reshape the way Filipinos prepare for retirement,” DragonFi CEO John Carlo Lim said.

Should 2,000 Filipinos sign up and each contribute P5,000 to their Pera account, total contributions will surge by P20 million, which includes Sia’s grant funding pledge.

Retirement savings

Data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas show that Pera contributors were at 5,555 by the end of 2023, up by 8.9 percent previously. Total contributions grew by a fifth to P396.3 million.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved DragonFi’s application as a Pera administrator last December.

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Pera, a voluntary personal retirement savings program in the country, is meant to supplement benefits under the state-run Social Security System and Government Service Insurance System.

To encourage more participants, the SEC issued Memorandum Circular No. 14, Series of 2024 last September.

This expanded the eligibility of Pera administrators, or those responsible for overseeing and maintaining individual accounts, to include SEC-regulated securities brokers, investment houses and investment company advisers or fund managers.

Before the new guidelines were issued, only banks, trust corporations and insurance firms were qualified to provide Pera-related services.